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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



AMONG THE 
GREAT MASTERS OF WARFARE 



AMONG 
THE GREAT MASTERS 

By 

Walter E, Rowlands 

Among the Great Masters of Warfare 
Among the Great Masters of Literature 
Among the Great Masters of Music 
Among the Great Masters of Painting 
Among the Great Masters of Oratory 

i2mo, handsome cover design, boxed separately or 
in sets 

DANA ESTES & COMPANY 

Publishers 
Estes Press, 2J2 Summer Street, Boston 



i8oy. 

From painting by J. L. E. Meissonier 



% Among the Great 

Masters of Warfare 

Scenes in the Lives of Famous Warriors 



Thirty- two Reproductions of Famous Paintings 
with Text by 

Walter Rowlands 




A Boston 

fi Dana Estes & Company 

9j Publishers 



THE LIBRARY OF 
0ONRRES8, 

Tviw) Cowed Reckiveo 

OCT. 7% ^m^ 

OL/»aS ^XXo No. 



Copyright, igo2 
By Dana Estes & Company 



^// rights reserved 



AMONG THE GREAT MASTERS OF WARFARE 

.Publish^ October, 1902 



(Colonial ?Pr52S 

Electrotyped and Printed by C, H. Simonds & Co. 

Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 



^^\^ 
^ 



■Si 



^on 



" Gashed with honorable scars, 
Low in Glory's lap they lie ; 
Though they fell, they fell Uke stars, 
Streaming splendor through the sky." 

— Montgomery. 

" A GENERAL is the head, the soul of an army ; it 
was Caesar, not the Roman army, who conquered 
Gaul ; it was Hannibal, not the Carthaginian army, 
who made the Republic of Rome tremble at its gates ; 
it was not the Macedonian army, but Alexander that 
reached the Indus ; it was not the French army that 
warred on the Weser and the Inn, but Turenne ; it 
was Frederick the Great, not the Prussian army, who 
defended Prussia for seven years against the three 
greatest powers of Europe." — Napoleon. 

" All history is the decline of war, though the 
slow decline." — Emerson. 

" For what miscarries 
Shall be the general's fault, though he perform 

To the utmost of a man." 

— Shakespeare. 



PREFACE 

The compiler's thanks are due to Mr. 
Loyall Farragut for permission to quote from 
his life of his father, published by Messrs. 
D. Appleton & Co., and to Gen. James Grant 
Wilson for the use of a portion of his paper, 
" Recollections of Admiral Farragut," pub- 
lished in The Criterion. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Alexander i 

Hannibal 9 

C^SAR 16 

Attila . 26 

Charlemagne 34 

Roland 42 

Godfrey de Bouillon .... 48 

Barbarossa 53 

Charles V 57 

Alva 66 

Drake 74 

Spinola 84 

Wallenstein 88 

GusTAvus Adolphus 96 

Cromwell 104 

Turenne 115 

CONDE . . 121 



xii Contents 



PAGE 



Marlborough 129 

Prince Eugene 134 

Dessau 143 

Charles XII. 150 

Marshal Saxe 156 

Frederick the Great .... 163 

Washington 171 

Blucher 180 

Nelson 188 

Napoleon 194 

Wellington 209 

MoLTKE ' . .217 

Farragut 225 

Grant 233 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Siege of 



1807 

The Death of Alexander 
Hannibal Crossing the Rhone 
The Death of Caesar 

Attila 

The Baptism of Witikind . 
Roland at Roncesvalles . 
Godfrey de Bouillon at the 

Jerusalem 
The Death of Barbarossa 
Charles V. at the Siege of Metz . 
A Family of Nobles before the Council 

OF Blood 
The Admiral of the Spanish Armada 

Surrenders to Drake 
The Surrender of Breda . 
The Murder of Wallenstein 



PAGH -y 
Frontispiece 

4 ' 
12 ' 
23 - 
29 
40 
46 



51 

54 
61 

70 

83 
85 
95 






xiv List of Illustrations 

GusTAvus Adolphus before the Battle 
of lutzen .... 

Cromwell at Marston Moor . 

The Death of Turenne 

Louis XIV. and the Great Conde 

Marlborough at Malplaquet . 

Prince Eugene at the Battle of Zenta 

The Courtship of Leopold of Dessau 

The Burning of the Palace at Stock 
HOLM IN 1697 .... 

The Battle of Fontenoy . 

Repulsed at Torgau .... 

Washington's First Meeting with La 

FAYETTE 

Marshal " Vorwarts "... 
Nelson Leaving Portsmouth, 1805 . 
Napoleon on Board the " Bellerophon " 
The Last Return from Duty . 
MoLTKE AT Sedan 

Farragut 

The Surrender of Lee 



99 
106 
118 
128 
133 
139 
146 

151 
162 
169 

173 
183 
191 
20s 
212 
218 
228 
234 



AMONG THE GREAT MASTERS 
OF WARFARE 



ALEXANDER 

" And though mine arm should conquer twenty worlds, 
There's a lean fellow beats all conquerors." 

— Dekker. 

And now in Babylon he waits short space 
for Alexander, whose marvellous career death 
stopped when the great conqueror was but 
thirty-two. Stricken with fever a few days 
since, his end comes quickly, and with Rox- 
ana standing beside his couch, he faintly bids 
a last farewell to the valorous souls who have 
fought for him so nobly. One by one the 
veterans of the Granicus and of Arbela sadly 



2 TJie Great Masters of Warfare 

take leave of the dying hero and depart, their 
hearts filled with sorrow and gloomy fore- 
bodings for the future. 

As Piloty has thus pictured them, so has 
the Irish poet, Aubrey de Vere, imagined 
the scene in his "Alexander the Great." 

" Amyntas {speaks). Eight brief days ago 
That was a hall of council whence the world 
Waited her sentence. I could deem its air 
Was thick with phantom shapes. Is all hope lost? 

Socrates. At midnight hope surceased. The 
fever sank ; 
With it his strength. He bade them bear him hither : 
He speaks not since. 

Amyiitas. In yon black palace lies 

The aged queen ! from window on to window 
The lights pass quick. There's sorrow there. 'Tis 
cold! 

Socrates. You shake. 

Amytitas. They woke me sudden with the news. 

A7itig07itis {entering). The Persian has his trouble 
as the Greek. 
Old Sisygambis sinks from hour to hour : 
She came from Susa hither, vexed by dreams. 
Found the king sick ; foodless she sits since then 



Alexander 3 

Upon the palace floor. Dread gifts, men say, 
Of prophecy are hers. A funeral veil 
O'erhangs her glittering eyes and plaited forehead : 
Her Magians stand around j the royal children 
Kneel at her feet. 

Socrates. In great Serapis' temple 

Four generals watched from early night to morn, 
Hoping some intimation from the god : 
Nor oracle nor vision was vouchsafed. 
At last Seleucus, kneeling at the shrine. 
Besought " Shall the sick king, a suppliant, lay him 
Beneath the healing shadow of this fane ? " 
'Twas answered, " Where he lies, there let him bide." 

Amyntas. That meant, that here abiding he shall 
live. 

Antigonus. It meant, that death is better than to 
live. 

Ptolejny {near the pallet). Seleucus, you were with 
him ? 

Seleucus. Half the night 

My tears bedewed his hand. 

Ptolemy. Knew he things round him ? 

Seleucus. He knew them well ; and knew of 
things beyond. 
Long time he watched, or seemed to watch, the pas- 
sions 
Of some great fight that makes a world or mars, 



4 The Great Masters of Warfare 

And saw all lost. ' Parmenio fought against me ; 
'Twas death's cold river gave him back his youth,' 
He muttered. Next he spake as to some priest: 
And seemed to grasp his wrist, and reasoned with 

him — 
I caught no word — two hours with lips foam-flecked, 
As one who proudly pleads, yet pleads for life ; 
Then ceased, and slept. 

Eii7nenes. Keep silence at the gates ! 

Antzgonus {drawing near). The soldiers will to 

see him. 
Ptolemy. Let it be : 

'Tis now too late for aught to work him ill. 

\The soldiers strea7n zjt, circling succes- 
sively the royal pallet.^ till the whole 
hall is thronged.'] 
Seleucus. The soldiers' friend! He hears their 
stifled moaning : 
His eye is following them ; he fain would stretch 
His hand toward them ! 

Eu7nenes. Speak to him, Ptolemy ! 

Ptolemy. Sire, it is come ! the king is king in 
death : 
Speak the king's ordinance. Who shall wear his 
crown ? 
Alexander. The worthiest head. \^A long silence. 
Ptole?ny. Once more his lips are moving : 



The Death of Alexander. 

From painting by Carl von Piloty. 



Alexander 5 

Perdiccas, you are keen of ear : bend low — 
Bend to his lips. 

Eumeiies. His fingers move : he slides 
The royal ring into Perdiccas' hand. 

Ptolemy. Hear you no words ? 

Perdiccas. I think he said, ' Patroclus.' 

Ptolemy. Once more? 

Perdiccas. He said, ' Achilles followed soon.' 

Ptolemy. Bend down once more. 

Perdiccas. He spake it plain: I heard it: 
' Patroclus died : Achilles followed soon.' 

Seleucus. And died in saying it. 'Tis past. 
He's gone ! 

Ptolemy. The greatest spirit that ever trod this 
earth 
Has passed from earth. He, swifter than the morn, 
O'er-rushed the globe. Expectant centuries 
Condensed themselves into a few brief years 
To work his will ; and all the buried ages 
Summed their old wealth, to enrich, for man's behoof, 
With virtuous wisdom one Olympian mind. 
Which, grappling all things — needing not experi- 
ence — 
Yet scorned no diligence, the weapons shaped, 
Itself, that hewed its way, nor left to others 
The pettiest of those cares that, small themselves. 
Are rivets which make whole the mail of greatness. 



6 The Gi'eat Masters of Warfare ■ 

The world hath had its conquerors : one alone 
Conquered for weal of them who bowed beneath him, 
And in the vanquished found his firmest friends 
And passionatest mourners. 
The world hath had its kings : but one alone 
To whom a kingdom meant a radiant fabric, 
No tyrant's dungeon-keep, no merchant's mart, 
But all intelligential, so combining 
All interests, aspirations, efforts, aims. 
That man's great mind, therein made one o'er earth, 
Might show all knowledge in its boundless glass, 
As the sea shows the sun. Rough Macedon, 
Boast, yet be just ! Thou wert this wonder's nurse : 
A mightier was his mother. Earth, take back 
Thy chief of sons ! Henceforth his tomb art thou. 
Seleuais. Lords, he is gone who made us what 
we are ; 
And we, remanded to our nothingness. 
Have that, not words, to offer him for praise. 
There stand among us some that watched his boy- 
hood ; 
They have had their wish ; he lived his life. The 

gods. 
Feared they the next step of their earthly rival, 
Who pressed so near their thrones ? Your pardon, 

lords ! 
He's dead who should this day have praised the dead. 



Alexander J 

Happiest in this, he died before his friend. 
Lords, we have lived in festival till now, 
And knew it not. The approaching woes they^best 
Shall measure greatness gone. The men who 'scape. 
Building new fortunes on the wreck-strewn shore, 
Shall to their children speak in life's sad eve 
Of him who made its morning. Let them tell 
His deeds but half, or no man will believe them 
It may be they will scarce themselves believe, 
Deeming the past a dream. That hour, their tears 
Down-streaming unashamed, like tears in sleep, 
Will better their poor words : who hear shall cry, 
Pale with strong faith, ' There lived an Alexander ! ' " 

Historical subjects engrossed the brush of 
the noted German artist, Piloty, who died at 
Munich — where he was born and where he 
studied — in 1886, at the age of sixty. Hav- 
ing been for many years a professor in the 
Munich Academy, Piloty numbered among 
his pupils some distinguished painters, of 
whom may be cited Lenbach, Defregger, 
and Makart. 

His most famous picture is ''Thusnelda 
at the Triumphal Entry of Germanicus into 



8 TJie Girat Masters of Warfare 

Rome," in the New Pinacothek at Munich, 
a smaller version of which belonged to A. T. 
Stewart, the New York merchant prince, 
and is now owned by the Metropolitan 
Museum of Art. '*Nero Walking among 
the Ruins of Rome," "The Wise and Foolish 
Virgins," '' Galileo in Prison," "The Battle 
of the White Mountain, near Prague," 
"Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn," "The 
Discovery of America," and three canvases 
depicting scenes in the life of Wallenstein, 
are the work of Piloty. His " Elector Maxi- 
milian Adhering to the Catholic League in 
1609" was painted for the Maximilianeum at 
Munich, and his " Elizabeth and Frederick 
of Bohemia Receiving News of the Loss of 
the Battle of Prague " was formerly in the 
Probasco collection at Cincinnati. 



Hannibal 



HANNIBAL 

•* Hannibal was a very pretty fellow in those days ; it 
must be granted." — Congreve. 

Alexander fought Persians : Hannibal 
fought Romans, and it may well be ques- 
tioned if the Carthaginian does not outrank 
the Macedonian soldier. No favorite of 
fortune, as was Alexander, Hannibal was 
admirable in defeat ; during the fifteen years 
he campaigned in Italy, a mutiny was un- 
known in his army ; not only did he wage 
successful war against heavy odds, but also 
against many skilled leaders ; and, finally, his 
exploits were told by his enemies, — a detail 
worth considering. 

One of the most famous deeds recorded of 
Hannibal was his passage of the Alps, but 
"the crossing of the river Rhone is also 
a noteworthy feat. It is commonly agreed 



lo The Great Masters of Warfare 

that this took place at a point near Roque- 
maure, a little north of Avignon. 

Finding himself opposed on the farther 
bank by a tribe of Gauls, Hannibal sent 
Hanno, one of his ablest lieutenants, some 
twenty-five miles up the river. Here Hanno 
crossed and at once moved down-stream 
to the point where the Gauls waited to resist 
the landing of his leader. Announcing his 
arrival to Hannibal by the preconcerted sig- 
nal of the smoke of a huge bonfire, Hanno 
routed the enemy by a sudden attack in their 
rear and the Carthaginian army began the 
passage of the Rhone. 

The elephants, of which Hannibal had 
thirty-seven, crossed last, and Polybius thus 
describes their ferrying. 

"The elephants were brought over in the 
following manner : Having made a number 
of rafts, they joined two of them together 
strongly and made them fast to the land on 
the bank ; the breadth of the two thus united 



Hannibal 1 1 

being about fifty feet. They then fastened 
two more to the extremity of these, which 
advanced out into the river ; they secured 
also that side which was on the stream by 
cables from the land, fastened to some trees 
which grew on the bank, in order that they 
might not be forced away by the strength of 
the current. Having made this raft in the 
form of a bridge about two hundred feet in 
length, they added to the end of it two other 
larger floats very firmly joined together, but 
fastened to the rest in such a manner that 
the cable by which they were held might 
easily be cut asunder. They fixed also many 
ropes to these, by means of which the boats 
that were to tow them across might keep 
them from being carried down the stream ; 
and thus resisting the current, convey the 
elephants on them to the other side. They 
next spread a great quantity of earth upon 
the rafts, laying it on until they had rendered 
them level, and similar in color with the 



12 The Great Master's of Warfare 

road on the land that led to the passage. 
The elephants, being accustomed to obey 
the Indians, did so till they approached the 
water, but never daring to venture in, they 
first led forward two female elephants along 
the rafts, when the rest presently followed. 
Upon reaching the extreme rafts, the cables 
which fastened them to the rest were cut, 
and they were instantly towed by the boats 
toward the other side. At this, the ele- 
phants, being thrown into great disorder, 
turned every way, and rushed to every part 
of the raft. But being surrounded on all 
sides by water, their fears subsided, and they 
were constrained to remain where they stood. 
In this manner were the greater part of the 
elephants brought over, two rafts being thus 
continually fitted to the rest. Some, how- 
ever, through fear, threw themselves into the 
stream in the midst of the passage. The 
Indians who conducted these all perished, 
but the beasts themselves escaped ; for owing 



Hannibal Crossing the Rhone. 

From painting by Henri Paul Motte. 



Hannibal 1 3 

to the strength and size of their trunks they 
were able to raise these above the water, and 
breathe through them ; and thus discharging 
the water as it entered their mouth, they 
held out, and walked across the most part of 
the river." 

The use of elephants in warfare was com- 
mon in the East in ancient times, and the 
custom was later imported into Europe. 
Hannibal seems to have thought well of it 
and often made use of these great beasts in 
fighting, although their employment was a 
source of danger, for if the enemy succeeded 
in alarming them, or inflicted wounds upon 
their sensitive trunks, they became unman- 
ageable, and in their headlong flight would 
throw everything into confusion, and damage 
friends as much as foes. Thus it happened 
at the battle of Palermo (b. c. 251) where 
Asdrubal, the Carthaginian general, fought 
against Caecilius Metellus, and his array of 
elephants, one hundred and forty in number, 



14 The Great Masters of Warfare 

were rendered furious by the darts of the 
Roman archers. The huge creatures, some 
throwing off their guides and treading them 
under foot, and all becoming unmanageable, 
rushed wildly through the ranks of Asdru- 
bal's army and made great havoc. Metel- 
lus, perceiving this, took advantage of the 
enemy's confusion, successfully attacked 
their battalions, and came off victor, among 
his spoils being over a hundred of the ele- 
phants whose rout had cost the Cartha- 
ginians so dearly. 

The painter of Hannibal's army passing 
the Rhone has gained distinction by several 
works wherein episodes of ancient history 
are reproduced with an attempt at the ut- 
most possible fidelity. The legend of the 
geese whose cackle once saved Rome, by 
announcing to the sentinels of the Capitol 
the advance of the Gauls, was illustrated by 
him in a picture sent to the Salon of 1881 ; 
** Vercingetorix Surrendering to Caesar " be- 



Hannibal 1 5 

longs to the museum of Puy, and the " Tro- 
jan Horse " is in the Corcoran Gallery at 
Washington. "Baal Devouring Prisoners of 
War at Babylon," " The Betrothed of Belus," 
and *' The Passing of the Chief Vestal " are 
works of a kindred nature by this artist. 
" Richelieu at the Siege of La Rochelle" is 
the property of the museum of that city, and 
the '' Hannibal " is owned by the museum 
of Bagnols. At the Chicago World's Fair 
of 1 893, Motte was represented by a paint- 
ing entitled, "The loth of August, 1792." 
He is a Parisian and a pupil of Gerome, and 
his talent has been recognized by the be- 
stowal upon him of a third class medal in 
1880, a bronze medal at the Paris Exposi- 
ion of 1889, and one of silver at the Paris 
Exposition of 1900. 



1 6 The Great Masters of Warfare 



C^SAR 

*' O mighty Csesar ! Dost thou lie so low ? 
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils. 
Shrunk to this little measure?" — Shakespeare. 

The night before his murder, Caesar 
supped with Lepidus, and the talk turned on 
death and on the kind of death most to be 
desired. Caesar said, "A sudden one," and 
on the morrow had his wish, 

Froude's description of the tragedy is 
this : " Thus the Ides of March drew near. 
Caesar was to set out in a few days for 
Parthia. Decimus Brutus was going, as 
governor, to the north of Italy, Lepidus to 
Gaul, Marcus Brutus to Macedonia, and 
Trebonius to Asia Minor. Antony, Caesar's 
colleague in the consulship, was to remain in 
Italy. Dolabella, Cicero's son-in-law, was to 
be consul with him as soon as Caesar should 
have left for the East. The foreign appoint- 
ments were all made for five years, and in 



Ccesar 17 

another week the party would be scattered. 
The time for action had come, if action there 
was to be. Papers were dropped in Brutus's 
room, bidding him awake from his sleep. 
On the statue of Junius Brutus some hot 
republican wrote, 'Would that thou wast 
alive ! ' The assassination in itself was 
easy, for Caesar would take no precautions. 
So portentous an intention could not be kept 
entirely secret ; many friends warned him to 
beware ; but he disdained too heartily the 
worst that his enemies could do to him to 
vex himself with thinking of them, and he 
forbade the subject to be mentioned any 
more in his presence. Portents, prophecies, 
soothsayings, frightful aspects in the sacri- 
fices, natural growths of alarm and excite- 
ment, were equally vain. 'Am I to be 
frightened,' he said, in answer to some 
report of the haruspices, ' because a sheep 
is without a heart } ' 

*' An important meeting of the Senate had 



1 8 The Great Masters of Warfare 

been called for the Ides (the 15th) of the 
month. The pontifices, it was whispered, 
intended to bring on again the question 
of the kingship, before Caesar's departure. 
The occasion would be appropriate. The 
senate-house itself was a convenient scene 
of operations. The conspirators met at 
supper the evening before at Cassius's house. 
Cicero, to his regret, was not invited. The 
plan was simple, and was rapidly arranged. 
Caesar would attend unarmed. The senators 
not in the secret would be unarmed also. 
The party who intended to act were to 
provide themselves with poniards, which 
could be easily concealed in their paper 
boxes. So far all was simple ; but a ques- 
tion rose whether Caesar only was to be 
killed, or whether Antony and Lepidus were 
to be despatched along with him. They 
decided that Caesar's death would be suffi- 
cient. To spill blood without necessity 
would mar, it was thought, the sublimity of 



Ccesar 19 

their exploit. Some of them Hked Antony. 
None supposed that either he or Lepidus 
would be dangerous when Caesar was gone. 
In this resolution Cicero thought that they 
made a fatal mistake ; fine emotions were 
good in their place, in the perorations of 
speeches and such like ; Antony, as Cicero 
admitted, had been signally kind to him ; but 
the killing Caesar was a serious business, and 
his friends should have died along with him. 
It was determined otherwise. Antony and 
Lepidus were not to be touched. For the 
rest, the assassins had merely to be in their 
places in the Senate in good time. When 
Caesar entered, Trebonius was to detain 
Antony in conversation at the door. The 
others were to gather about Caesar's chair 
on pretence of presenting a petition, and so 
could make an end. A gang of gladiators 
were to be secreted in the adjoining theatre, to 
be ready should any unforeseen difficulty pre- 
sent itself. . . . When great men die, im- 



20 TJie Great Masters of Warfare 

agination insists that all nature shall have 
felt the shock. Strange stories were told in 
after years of the uneasy labors of the 
elements that night. 

" ' A little ere the mightiest Julius fqll, 

The graves did open, and the sheeted dead 
Did squeak and jibber in the Roman streets.' 

The armor of Mars, which stood in the hall 
of the pontifical palace, crashed down upon 
the pavement. The door of Caesar's room 
flew open. Calpurnia dreamt her husband 
was murdered, and that she saw him ascend- 
ing into heaven, and received by the hand of 
God. In the morning the sacrifices were 
again unfavorable. Caesar was restless. 
Some natural disorder affected his spirits, 
and his spirits were reacting on his body. 
Contrary to his usual habit, he gave way to 
depression. He decided, at his wife's en- 
treaty, that he would not attend the Senate 
that day. 



Ccesar 2 1 

**The house was full. The conspirators 
were in their places with their daggers ready. 
Attendants came in to remove Caesar's chair. 
It was announced that he was not coming. 
Delay might be fatal. They conjectured 
that he already suspected something. A 
day's respite, and all might be discovered. 
His familiar friend whom he trusted — the 
coincidence is striking! — was employed to 
betray him. Decimus Brutus, whom it was 
impossible for him to distrust, went to en- 
treat his attendance, giving reasons to which 
he knew that Caesar would listen, unless the 
plot had been actually betrayed. It was 
now eleven in the forenoon. Caesar shook 
off his uneasiness and rose to go. As he 
crossed the hall, his statue fell, and shivered 
on the stones. Some servant, perhaps, had 
heard whispers, and wished to warn him. 
As he still passed on, a stranger thrust a 
scroll into his hand, and begged him to read 
it on the spot. It contained a list of the 



22 The Great Masters of Warfare 

conspirators, with a clear account of the plot. 
He supposed it to be a petition, and placed 
it carelessly among his other papers. The 
fate of the empire hung upon a thread, but 
the thread was not broken. As Caesar had 
lived to reconstruct the Roman world, so his 
death was necessary to finish the work. He 
went on to the Curia, and the senators said 
to themselves that the augurs had foretold 
his fate, but he would not listen ; he was 
doomed for his contempt of religion. 

''Antony, who was in attendance, was de- 
tained, as had been arranged, by Trebonius. 
Caesar entered, and took his seat. His pres- 
ence awed men, in spite of themselves, and 
the conspirators had determined to act at 
once, lest they should lose courage to act 
at all. He was familiar and easy of access. 
They gathered around him. He knew them 
all. There was not one from whom he had 
not a right to expect some sort of gratitude, 
and the movement suggested no suspicion. 



The Death of Ccesar. 

From painting by J ean Louis Gerome. 



Ccesar 23 

One had a story to tell him ; another some 
favor to ask. Tullius Cimber, whom he had 
just made governor of Bithynia, then came 
close to him, with some request which he 
was unwilling to grant. Cimber caught his 
gown, as if in entreaty, and dragged it from 
his shoulders. Cassius, who was standing be- 
hind, stabbed him in the throat. He started 
up with a cry, and caught Cassius's arm. 
Another poniard entered his breast, giving a 
mortal wound. He looked round, and see- 
ing not one friendly face, but only a ring of 
daggers pointing at him, he drew his gown 
over his head, gathered the folds about him 
that he might fall decently, and sank down 
without uttering another word. Cicero was 
present. The feelings with which he 
watched the scene are unrecorded, but may 
easily be imagined. Waving his dagger, 
dripping with Caesar's blood, Brutus shouted 
to Cicero by name, congratulating him that 
liberty was restored. The Senate rose with 



24 TJie Great Masters of Waif are 

shrieks and confusion, and rushed into the 
Forum. The crowd outside caught the 
words that Caesar was dead, and scattered to 
their houses. Antony, guessing that those 
who had killed Caesar would not spare him- 
self, hurried off into concealment. The 
murderers, bleeding, some of them, from 
wounds which they had given one another 
in their eagerness, followed, crying that the 
tyrant was dead, and that Rome was free ; 
and the body of the great Caesar was left 
alone in the house where a few weeks before 
Cicero told him that he was so necessary to 
his country that every senator would die 
before harm should reach him ! " 

The master-hand of Gerome has drawn the 
scene for us on the canvas which he exhib- 
ited at the Paris Exposition of 1867, 3.nd 
which, together with many others of his 
works, now enriches the collections of our 
countrymen. It once belonged to John 
Taylor Johnston, at the sale of whose pic- 



Ccesar 25 

tures in 1876 it brought ^8,000, and became 
the property of John Jacob Astor. 

Jean Leon Gerome, born at Vesoul in 
1824, went to Paris in 1841 and became a 
pupil of Paul Delaroche. His first appear- 
ance at the Salon was in 1847, when he 
presented the " Cock Plght," now in the 
Luxembourg. Li a long life of unwearied 
industry, he has produced a great number 
of pictures, the reputation of some being 
world-wide. 

Among the best known are *' The Duel 
after the Masked Ball," *' Gladiators Saluting 
Caesar," ''Louis XIV. and Moliere," ''Cleo- 
patra and Caesar," "Bonaparte before the 
Sphinx," and " Christian Martyrs." Hon- 
ors without number have been showered on 
Gerome, who adds to his fame as a painter 
the rare distinction of being also a sculptor 
of great merit. 



26 The Great Masters of Warfare 



ATTILA 

"The vigor with which Attila wielded the sword of 
Mars convinced the world that it had been reserved alone 
for his invincible arm." — Gibbon. 

The Huns first appeared in Europe about 
the year 374, which was perhaps some thirty 
years before the birth of Attila. Ancient 
chroniclers tell of their hardy way of living, 
how they " never frequent any sort of build- 
ings, which they look upon as set apart for 
the sepulchres of the dead, and, except in 
case of urgent necessity, they will not go 
under the shelter of a roof, and they think 
themselves insecure there, not having even 
a thatched cottage amongst them ; but, 
wandering in the woods from their very 
cradle, they are accustomed to endure frost, 
hunger, and thirst. They are clothed with 
coverings made of linen and the skins of 
wood-mice stitched together, nor have they 



Attila 27 

any change of garment, or ever put off that 
which they wear till it is reduced to rags 
and drops off. They cover their heads with 
curved fur caps ; their hairy legs are de- 
fended by goat skins, and their shoes are so 
ill fitted as to prevent their stepping freely, 
on which account they are not well quaUfied 
for infantry ; but, almost growing to the 
backs of their horses, which are hardy and 
ill-shaped, and often sitting upon them after 
the fashion of a woman, they perform any- 
thing they have to do on horseback. There 
they sit night and day, buy and sell, eat and 
drink, and leaning on the neck of the animal 
take their slumber, and even their deepest 
repose. They hold their councils on horse- 
back. Without submitting to any strict 
royal authority, they follow the tumultuous 
guidance of their principal individuals, and 
act usually by a sudden impulse. When 
attacked they will sometimes stand to fight, 
but enter into battle drawn up in the figure 



28 The Great Masters of Warfare 

of wedges, with a variety of frightful vocifera- 
tions. Extremely light and sudden in their 
movements, they disperse purposely to take 
breath, and careering without any formed 
line, they make vast slaughter of their ene- 
mies ; but, owing to the rapidity of their 
manoeuvres, they seldom stop to attack a 
rampart or a hostile camp. At a distance 
they fight with missile weapons, most skil- 
fully pointed with sharp bones. Near at 
hand they engage with the sword, without 
any regard for their own persons, and while 
the enemy is employed in parrying the attack, 
they entangle his limbs with a noose in such 
a manner as to deprive him of the power of 
riding or resisting. None of them plough, or 
touch any agricultural instrument. They all 
ramble about like fugitives without any fixed 
place of abode with the wagons in which 
they live." 

These barbaric fighters, after ravaging 
many other parts of Italy, set out under 



^■.^'r^ 



Atiila. 

From painting by Ulpiano Checa. 



I 



Attila 29 

Attila for the overthrow of Rome in the 
spring of the year 453, but the Eternal 
City was not destined to suffer the assaults 
of the sreat Hunnish warrior. Its savior 
appeared in the person of Pope Leo I., called 
the Great, who was despatched by the Em- 
peror Valentinian on an embassy to endeavor 
to avert the threatened onslaught of the 
" Scourge of God." " Leo is stated by his 
biographer and some other writers to have 
thrown himself at the feet of Attila, and to 
have delivered a speech of the most abject 
and unconditional submission. He is made 
to say, after the manner of Lupus, that evil 
man had felt his scourge, and to pray that 
the suppliants who addressed him might feel 
his clemency. That the Senate and Roman 
people, once conquerors of the world, but 
now defeated, humbly asked pardon and 
safety from Attila, the king of kings ; that 
nothing amid the exuberant glory of his 
great actions could have befallen him more 



30 TJie Girat Masters of Warfare 

conducive to the present lustre of his name, 
as to its future celebrity, than that the 
people, before whose feet all nations and 
kings had lain prostrate, should now be sup- 
pliant before his. That he had subdued the 
whole world, since it had been granted to 
him to overthrow the Romans, who had 
conquered all other nations. That they 
prayed him, who had subdued all things, to 
subdue himself ; that, as he had surpassed 
the summit of human glory, nothing could 
render him more like to Almighty God, than 
to will that security should be extended 
through his protection to the many whom 
he had subdued. The letters, however, of 
Leo, which are extant, upon various subjects 
chiefly connected with church discipline, 
seem to testify a right-judging and upright 
mind, and render it very improbable that he 
should have debased himself and the govern- 
ment which he then represented by such 
mean and contemptible adulation. Whether 



Attila 31 

he addressed the mighty Hun m the lan- 
guage of abject submission or strove to con- 
ciHate him by a more rational and dignified 
appeal, he was completely successful in ob- 
taining the object of his mission. The king 
is said to have stood silent and astonished, 
moved by veneration at the appearance, and 
affected by the tears of the pontiff ; and, 
when he was afterward questioned by his 
vassals, why he had conceded so much to 
the entreaties of Leo, to have answered that 
he did not reverence him, but had seen an- 
other man in sacerdotal raiment, more august 
in form and venerable from his gray hairs, 
who held a drawn sword, and threatened him 
with instant death, unless he granted every- 
thing that Leo demanded. The vision was 
reputed to be that of St. Peter, and accord- 
ing to Nicolas Olaus he saw two figures, who 
were reported to have been St. Paul and St. 
Peter. This celebrated anecdote ... is to 
be looked upon as an ecclesiastical fiction. 



32 TJie Great Masters of Warfare 

but Attila seems to have been alarmed by a 
superstitious dread of the fate which over- 
took Alaric speedily after the subjugation of 
Rome. A joke is related as having been 
prevalent against Attila amongst his fol- 
lowers, founded on the names of two bishops, 
Lupus and Leo, — that as in Gaul he had 
yielded to the wolf, he now gave way before 
the lion. He had probably more weighty 
reasons for his retreat than the venerable 
aspect of the lion, the visions of the apostles, 
or the fate of the Gothic conqueror. His 
army was enervated by the sack of the 
Italian towns, and a grievous pestilence had 
thinned its ranks ; the devastation of the 
country had rendered it difficult to obtain 
subsistence, and his troops were suffering 
from famine as well as disease ; the recol- 
lection of Radagais, who had not long before 
in the plenitude of his power been starved 
into unconditional surrender on the heights 
of Faesulae, may have furnished him with 



Attila 33 

rational grounds of apprehension, while the 
army of Aetius, fresh and unbroken, was 
hanging upon his skirts, intercepting his 
foragers, cutting off his stragglers, and 
watching opportunity to inflict some more 
important injury. An ample donation of 
gold, according to the base practice of that 
period, was probably added to the causes 
which induced Attila to forego, for that sea- 
son at least, the attack of Rome; and he 
consented to withdraw his forces." 

Checa, the able Spanish artist who painted 
Attila riding at the head of his fierce Tar- 
tars, was born in i860, studied at the Ma- 
drid Academy, and gained the Spanish Prize 
of Rome in 1884. In 1887 his "Invasion of 
the Barbarians " was rewarded with a first 
class medal at Madrid, and in 1890 his 
celebrated " Roman Chariot Race," one of 
the most spirited pictures of horses in vio- 
lent action ever produced, won a medal at 
the Paris Salon. 



34 TJie Gi'eat Masters of Warfare 

The horse in motion has been the chief 
theme of several works by Checa, — " Ma- 
zeppa," '' The Ravine at Waterloo," and 
"The Abduction of Proserpine" are among 
them, — but he has proved in his " Nauma- 
chia " and other instances that his art is not 
confined to such subjects. 



CHARLEMAGNE 

" Emperor of the West, King of France and Germany, 
restorer of the arts and sciences, wise lawgiver, great 
converter of infidels, — how many titles to the recollec- 
tion and gratitude of posterity ! " — Pauline Paris. 

Charlemagne, " the hero of two nations," 
began in 772 the great mission of his 
life, which was to subdue and convert the 
Saxons, a work which was effected only after 
more than thirty years of conflict. "After 
having, in four or five successive expeditions, 
gained victories and sustained checks, he 
thought himself sufficiently advanced in his 



Charlemagne 3 5 

conquest to put his relations with the Saxons 
to a grand trial 'In 'j'j'j he resolved,' says 
Eginhard, ' to go and hold, at the place 
called Paderborn (close to Saxony), the gen- 
eral assembly of his people. On his arrival 
he found there assembled the senate and 
people of this perfidious nation, who, con- 
formably to his orders, had repaired thither, 
seeking to deceive him by a false show of 
submission and devotion. , . . They earned 
their pardon, but on this condition however, 
that, if hereafter they broke their engage- 
ments, they would be deprived of country 
and liberty. A great number amongst them 
had themselves baptized on this occasion ; 
but it was with far from sincere intentions 
that they had testified a desire to become 
Christians.' 

"There had been absent from this great 
meeting a Saxon chieftain called Witikind, 
son of Wernekind, king of the Saxons at the 
north of the Elbe. He had espoused the 



36 The Great Masters of Waif are 

sister of Siegfried, king of the Danes, and 
he was the friend of Ratbod, king of the 
Prisons. A true chieftain at heart as well 
as by descent, he was made to be the hero 
of the Saxons just as, seven centuries before, 
the Cheruscan Herrmann (Arminius) had 
been the hero of the Germans. Instead of 
repairing to Paderborn, Witikind had left 
Saxony and taken refuge with his brother- 
in-law, the king of the Danes. Thence he 
encouraged his Saxon compatriots, some to 
persevere in their resistance, others to repent 
them of their show of submission. War 
began again, and Witikind hastened back to 
take part in it. 

" In jjZ the Saxons advanced as far as 
the Rhine ; but, ' not having been able to 
cross this river,' says Eginhard, 'they set 
themselves to lay waste with fire and sword 
all the towns and all the villages from the 
city of Duitz (opposite Cologne) as far 
as the confluence of the Mosplle. The 



Charlemagne 37 

churches as well as the houses were laid in 
ruins from top to bottom. The enemy in his 
frenzy spared neither age nor sex, wishing 
to show thereby that he had invaded the 
territory of the Franks, not for plunder, but 
for revenge ! ' For three years the struggle 
continued, more confined in area, but more 
and more obstinate. Many of the Saxon 
tribes submitted ; many Saxons were bap- 
tized ; and Siegfried, king of the Danes, sent 
to Charlemagne a deputation, as if to treat 
for peace. Witikind had left Denmark ; but 
he had gone across to her neighbors, the 
Northmen, and thence reentering Saxony, 
he kindled there an insurrection as fierce as 
it was unexpected. In 782 two of Charle- 
mao:ne's lieutenants were beaten on the 
banks of the Weser, and killed in the bat- 
tle, * together with four counts and twenty 
leaders, the noblest in the army ; indeed, 
the Franks were nearly all exterminated. 
At news of this disaster,' says Eginhard, 



38 The Great Masters of Warfare 

' Charlemagne, without losing a moment, 
reassembled an army and set out for Saxony. 
He summoned into his presence all the chief- 
tains of the Saxons, and demanded of them 
who had been the promoters of the revolt. 
All agreed in denouncing Witikind as the 
author of this treason. But as they could 
not deliver him up, because immediately after 
his sudden attack he had taken refuge with 
the Northmen, those who, at his instigation, 
had been accomplices in the crime, were 
placed, to the number of four thousand five 
hundred, in the hands of the king, and by 
his order, all had their heads cut off the 
same day, at a place called Werden, on the 
river Aller. After this deed of vengeance 
the king retired to Thionville to pass the 
winter there.' But vengeance did not put an 
end to the war. * Blood calls for blood,' 
were words spoken in the English Parlia- 
ment, in 1643, by Sir Benjamin Rudyard, 
one of the best citizens of his country, in her 



Charlemagne 39 

hour of revolution. For three years Charle- 
magne had to redouble his efforts to accom- 
plish in Saxony, at the cost of Prankish as 
well as Saxon blood, his work of conquest 
and conversion. * Saxony,' he often re- 
peated, 'must be Christianized or wiped out.' 
At last, in 785, after several victories, which 
seemed decisive, he went and settled down 
in his strong castle of Ehresburg, ' whither 
he made his wife and children come, being 
resolved to remain there all the bad season,' 
says Eginhard, and applying himself without 
cessation to scouring the country of the 
Saxons and wearing them out by his strong 
and indomitable determination. But deter- 
mination did not bhnd him to prudence and 
policy. ' Having learned that Witikind and 
Abbio (another great Saxon chieftain) were 
abiding in the part of Saxony situated on the 
other side of the Elbe, he sent to them 
Saxon envoys to prevail upon them to re- 
nounce their perfidy, and come, without hesi- 



40 Tlie Great Masters of Warfare 

tation, and trust themselves to him. They, 
conscious of what they had attempted, dared 
not at first trust to the king's word ; but 
having obtained from him the promise they 
desired of impunity and, besides, the hos- 
tages they demanded as guarantee of their 
safety and who were brought to them, on 
the king's behalf, by Amalwin, one of the 
officers of his court, they came with the said 
lord and presented themselves before the 
king in his palace of Attigny (Attigny-sur- 
Aisne, whither Charlemagne had now re- 
turned), and received baptism.' 

" Charlemagne did more than amnesty. 
Witikind, on his side, did more than come to 
Attigny and get baptized there ; he gave up 
the struggle, remained faithful to his new 
engagements, and led, they say, so Christian 
a life, that some chroniclers have placed him 
on the list of saints." 

Thus did the Saxon leader justify the 
words which, according to a German poet. 



The Baptism of Witikind. 

From painting by Paul Thumann. 



Charlemagne 4 1 

Charlemagne addressed to him on his bap- 
tismal day : 

*' All honor to thee, my friend, my mate ! 
Thou Saxon Lion, my foe of late ! 

For Christ is the Lord of Lords, 
And God like him there is none beside. 

Thine angel hath 
Sent thee hither to-day, O valorous Witikind ! 

" The mighty God 
Hath chosen thee ! 
He hath work, no doubt, for thee to do. 
Be thou but faithful and leal and true, 

And thou in thy turn shalt see 
That never another hero trod 

The earth whose worth 
And glory will match thine own, O Witikind ! 

" Rule henceforth o'er 
Fair Saxony's land; 
Rule thou, and thine heirs to the latest age, — 
Thy name will yet shine in history's page 
In colors glowing and grand ! " 

Great popularity has been bestowed upon 
the pictures of Paul Thumann, a German 
artist, who, born in 1834, became a pupil of 



42 The Gi'eat Masters of Warfare 

Julius Hubner and Ferdinand Pauwels, and 
eventually attained the honor of a professor- 
ship at the Berlin Academy. 

His most familiar works are the " Return 
of the Victorious Germans after a Battle in 
the Teutoburg Forest," " The Three Fates," 
" Psyche at Nature's Mirror," and "Art Wins 
the Heart," but in addition to producing a 
multipUcity of other pictures, Thumann has 
drawn many illustrations to the writings of 
Goethe, Heine, Chamisso, Shakespeare, and 
Tennyson. 

ROLAND 

" Oh for a blast of that dread horn, 

On Fontarabian echoes borne, 

That to King Charles did come. 

When Roland brave and Olivier, 

And every paladin and peer, 

On Roncesvalles died ! " 

— Scott. 

Of all the paladins whose exploits added 
lustre to the glorious reign of Charlemagne, 



Roland 43 

Roland was first. A son of Bertha, sister to 
the great emperor, he rejoiced in the posses- 
sion of a magic sword, called Durindana, 
which was the handiwork of fairies and once 
belonged to Hector, a matchless horse named 
Veillantif, and a wonderful ivory horn. 

On the return of Charlemagne from Spain, 
Roland commanded the rear-guard, which fell 
into an ambuscade at the pass of Ronces- 
valles in the Pyrenees and was utterly anni- 
hilated by a countless horde of Basques and 
Spanish-Arabians. 

The great French epic called " The Song of 
Roland," describes this woful event in detail : 

" Count Roland entered within the prease, 
And smote full deadly without surcease ; 
While Durindana aloft he held, 
Hauberk and helm he pierced and quelled, 
Intrenching body and hand and head. 
The Saracens lie by the hundred dead, 
And the heathen host is discomfited. 

" Valiantly Olivier, otherwhere, 
Brandished on high his sword Hauteclere — 



44 ^/^^ Great Masters of Warfare 

Save Durindana, of swords the best. 

To battle proudly he him addressed. 

His arms with the crimson blood were dyed. 
' God, what a vassal ! ' Count Roland cried. 
' O gentle baron, so true and leal, 

This day shall set on our love the seal ! 

The emperor cometh to find us dead, 

Forever parted and severed. 

France never looked on such woful day ; 

Nor breathes a Frank but for us will pray, — 

From the cloister cells shall the orisons rise, 

And our souls find rest in Paradise.' 

Olivier heard him, amid the throng, 

Spurred his steed to his side along. 

Saith each to other, ' Be near me still ; 

We will die together, if God so will.' 

< Roland and Olivier then are seen 
To lash and hew with their falchions keen ; 
With his lance the archbishop thrusts and slays, 
And the numbers slain we may well appraise ; 
In charter and writ is the tale expressed — 
Beyond four thousand, saith the geste. 
In four encounters they sped them well ; 
Dire and grievous the fifth befell. 
The cavaliers of the Franks are slain 
All but sixty, who yet remain ; 



Roland 45 

God preserved them, that ere they die, 
They may sell their lives full hardily. 

" As Roland gazed on his slaughtered men. 
He bespake his gentle compeer agen : 

' Ah, dear companion, may God us shield ! 
Behold, our bravest lie dead on field ! 
Well may we weep for France the fair, 
Of her noble barons despoiled and bare. 
Had he been with us, our king and friend ! 
Speak, my brother, thy counsel lend, 
How unto Karl shall we tidings send?' 
Olivier answered, ' I wist not how. 
Liefer death than be recreant now.' 

"'I will sound,' said Roland, ' upon my horn, 
Karl, as he passeth the gorge, to warn. 
The Franks, I know, will return apace.' 

" Then to his lips the horn he drew, 

And full and lustily he blew. 

The mountain peaks soared high around ; 

Thirty leagues was borne the sound. 

Karl hath heard it, and all his band. 
' Our men have battle,' he said, ' on hand.' 

Ganelon rose in front and cried, 
' If another spake, I would say he lied.' 



46 The Great Masters of Warfare 

" With deadly travail, in stress and pain, 
Count Roland sounded the mighty strain. 
Forth from his mouth the bright blood sprang, 
And his temples burst for the very pang. 
On and onward was born the blast, 
Till Karl hath heard as the gorge he passed. 
And Naimes and all his men of war. 
' It is Roland's horn,' said the emperor, 
'And, save in battle, he had not blown.' 
' Battle,' said Ganelon, ' is there none. 
Old are you grown — all white and hoar ; 
Such words bespeak you a child once more. 
Have you, then, forgotten Roland's pride, 
Which I marvel God should so long abide, 
How he captured Naples without your hest ? 
Forth from the city the heathen passed. 
To your vassal Roland they battle gave, — 
He slew them all with the trenchant glaive, 
Then turned the waters upon the plain. 
That trace of blood might not remain. 
He would sound all day for a single hare: 
'Tis jest with him and his fellows there ; 
For who would battle against him dare ? 
Ride onward — wherefore this chill delay ? 
Your mighty land is yet far away.' 

" On Roland's mouth is the bloody stain, 
Burst asunder his temple's vein ; 



Roland at Roncesvalles. 

From painting by Louis Felix Guesnet. 



Roland 47 

His horn he soundeth in anguish drear ; 
King Karl, ' That horn is long of breath.' 
Said Naimes, ' 'Tis Roland who travaileth, 
There is battle yonder by mine avow. 
He who betrayed him deceives you now. 
Arm, Sire ; ring forth your rallying cry, 
And stand your noble household by ; 
For you hear your Roland in jeopardy.' 

'« The king commands to sound the alarm, 
To the trumpet the Franks alight and arm ; 
With casque and corselet and gilded brand, 
Buckler and stalwart lance in hand, 
Pennons of crimson and white and blue, 
The barons leap on their steeds anew, 
And onward spur the passes through ; 
Nor is there one but to other saith, 

' Could we reach but Roland before his death, 
Blows would we strike for him grim and great.' 
Ah ! what availeth ! — 'tis all too late." 

*' Roland at Roncesvalles " is the work of 
a French artist, Louis FeHx Guesnet, who 
was born in 1843, and studied under 
Lamothe. It gained for its painter a medal 
at the Salon of 1873. Guesnet has also 



48 The Great Masters of Warfare 

painted '' Mazeppa," "After the Pillage,' 
"Before the Chase," and ''The Harvest." 



GODFREY DE BOUILLON 

" The fame of Godfrey and the First Crusade rivalled 
the older legends of Arthur and Charlemagne, and he is 
named with them as one of the three Christian heroes who 
made up the number of the nine noblest." 

— T. A. Archer. 

Despite the stain upon his character 
caused by his merciless treatment of the 
conquered Saracens, Godfrey de Bouillon 
must be considered the hero of the First 
Crusade. 

When, a few days after the capture of the 
Holy City, he was chosen King of Jerusalem, 
Godfrey would not consent to wear a golden 
crown in the place where our Saviour had 
worn a crown of thorns, and contented him- 
self with the modest title of Baron of the 
Holy Sepulchre. His rule lasted but a year, 
as he died on July 18, 1 100, being about forty 



Godfrey de Bouillon 49 

years of age, and was buried in the Church 
of the Holy Sepulchre. 

Hundreds of years after his death, in the 
forty-eighth year of that nineteenth century 
which has raised monuments to so many of 
the illustrious ones of the past, there was 
unveiled in Brussels, on the spot w^here he 
is said to have exhorted the Flemings to join 
the crusade, an equestrian statue of Godfrey 
holding aloft the banner of the Cross. But 
more lasting than bronze is Tasso's tribute 
to the great crusader in his epic of "Jeru- 
salem Delivered : " 

" O glorious Captain ! whom the Lord on high 
Defends, whom God preserves, and holds so dear ; 
For thee Heav'n tights, to thee the winds (from far, 
Called with thy Trumpets blast) obedient are. 

" The Angel Michael, to all the rest 
Unseen, appeared before Godfredo's eyes, 
In pure and heav'nly armor richly drest, 
Brighter than Titan's Rays in clearest skies; 
Godfrey (quoth he), this is the moment blest 
To free this Town that lonor in bondage lies. 



50 The Great Mastei^s of Wai'fare 

See, see what Legions in thine aid I bring, 
For Heav'n assists thee, and Heav'ns glorious 
King: 

" Lift up thine eyes, and in the Air behold 
The sacred Armies, how they mustred be, 
That cloud of flesh in which for times of old 
All Mankind wrapped is, I take from thee, 
And from thy Senses their thick mist unfold, 
That face to face thou mayst these spirits see, 
And for a little space, right-well sustain 
Their glorious light, and view those Angels plain. 

" Behold the Souls of every Lord and Knight 

That late bore Arms and dy'd for Christ's dear sake. 

How on thy side against this town they fight, 

And of thy joy and conquest will partake : 

There where the dust and smoak blinds all mens 

sight, 
Where stones and ruines such an heap do make. 
There Hugo fights, in thickest Cloud imbard, 
And undermines that Bulwark's Ground-work hard. 

*' See Dudon yonder, who with Sword and Fire 
Assails and helps to scale the Northern Port. 
That with bold courage doth thy Folk inspire. 
And rears their Ladders 'gainst the assaulted Fort: 



Godfrey de Bouillon at the Siege of Jerusalem. 

From drawing by Gustave Dore. 



Godfrey de Bouillon 5 I 

He that high pn the Mount in grave attire 
Is clad, and crowned stands in Kingly sort, 

Is Bishop Ademare, a blessed Spirit, 

Blest for his faith, crown'd for his death and merit. 

« But higher lift thy happy eyes, and view 
Where all the sacred Hosts of Heav'n appear; 
He lookt, and saw where winged Armies flew, 
Innumerable, pure, divine, and clear ; 
A Battel round of squadrons three they shew, 
And all by threes those Squadrons ranged were, 
Which spreading wide in rings, still wider go, 
Mov'd with a stone, calm water circleth so. 

" With that he winkt, and vanisht was and gone 
That wondrous Vision when he lookt again, 
His Worthies fighting view'd he one by one, 
And on each side saw signs of Conquest plain, 
For with Rinaldo 'gainst his yielding fone, 
II is Knights were entred and the Pagans slain. 
This seen, the Duke no longer stay could brook. 
But from the Bearer bold his Ensign took. 

" And on the bridge he stept, but there was staid 
By Soliman, who entrance all deny'd. 
That narrow tree to vertue great was made, 
The Field as in few blows right soon was try'd. 
Here will I give my life for Sion's aid. 



52 The Great Masters of Warfare 

Here will I end my days the Soldan cry'd. 
Behind me cut or break this Bridge, that I 
May kill a thousand Christians first, then die. 

" But thither fierce Rinaldo threatning went, 
And at his sight fled all the Soldan's train. 
What shall I do ? if here my life be spent, 
I spend and spill (quoth he) my bloud in vain. 
With that his steps from Godfrey back he bent, 
And to him let the passage free remain, 
Who threatning follow'd as the Soldan fled, 
And on the walls the purple Cross dispred : 

" About his head he tost, he turn'd, he cast 
That glorious Ensign, with a thousand twines. 
Thereon the wind breaths with his sweetest blast, 
Thereon with golden Rays glad Phoebus shines. 
Earth laughs for joy, the streams forbear their hast, 
Clouds clap their hands, on mountains dance the 
Pines, 
And Sions Towers and sacred Temples smile. 
For their deliv'rance from that bondage vile. 

" And now the Armies rear'd the happy cry 
Of Victory, glad, joyful, loud and shrill, 
The Hills resound, the Echo showreth high. 
And Tancred bold that fights and combats still 



Barbarossa 5 3 

With proud Argantes, brought his Tower so nigh, 
That on the Wall, against the Boasters will, 
In his despight, his Bridge he also laid, 
And won the place, and there the Cross displaid." 

Although Gustave Dore painted many pic- 
tures and produced some able works of sculp- 
ture, it is as an illustrator that he will always 
be best known. When, in 1883, this re- 
markable Frenchman died at fifty, his fertile 
brain and rapid pencil had given to the world 
many thousands of drawings, made in illus- 
tration of the Bible and of Dante, Cervantes, 
Rabelais, Montaigne, La Fontaine, Balzac, 
Milton, Coleridge, Tennyson, and Poe. 



BARBAROSSA 

"No man ever put the cross upon his shoulder with a 
higher and a purer heart." — Edward A. Freeman. 

Frederick Barbarossa in youth had 
borne a part in the unfortunate Second 
Crusade, and forty years later he joined 



54 The Great Masters of Waif are 

Philip Augustus of France and Richard 
Coeur de Lion in the third of those great 
enterprises which had for their aim the Hber- 
ation of Jerusalem from the grasp of the 
infidel. 

But the gallant "Kaiser Red-beard" was 
not fated to behold the Holy City. On the 
loth of June, 1190, while his army was on 
the march toward Cilicia, Frederick, in at- 
tempting to swim his horse across the river 
Saleph, was swept away by the current and 
drowned. Tradition, ever busy with the 
name of the great emperor, alleged that 
the spot had been marked from remote an- 
tiquity and that a rock near the river bore 
the ominous words, " Hie Iwminufn maxinnis 
peribW ("Here shall perish the greatest of 
men"). 

It was, however, firmly believed that 
Frederick, like the EngHsh King Arthur, 
would come again to right all wrongs and 
rule over a greater and a happier nation. 



The Death of Barbarossa. 

From painting by Wilhelm Beckmann. 



Barbarossa 5 5 

The German poet, Geibel, has told in verse 
how — 

" Far within the lone Kyffhauser 
With a lamp red glimmering by 
Sits the aged Emperor Frederick 
At a marble table nigh. 

" Covered with a purple mantle 
And in armor glancing bright, 
Still upon his moveless eyelids 
Lieth slumber's heavy night. 

« On his features, calm yet earnest, 
Love and sternness each is shown, 
And his beard, so long and golden, 

Through the marble stone hath grown. 

" Here, like brazen statues standing, 
All his knights their lord surround, 
Sword begirt, in armor gleaming, 
But like him in slumber bound. 

" All is silent, save the moisture 
Dropping slowly from the wall, 
Silent, till the appointed morning 
Breaks in glory over all. 



56 The Great Masters of Warfare 

" Till the eagle's mighty pinions 

Round the mountain summit play, 
At whose rush the swarming ravens, 
Quick, affrighted, flee away. 

*' Comes a sound like far-off thunder, 
Rolling through the mountain then. 
And the emperor grasps his sword-hilt, 
And the knights awake again. 

" Loud upon its hinges sounding 
Open springs the brazen door. 
Barbarossa and his followers 

Walk in bright array once more. 

*• On his helm the crown he beareth, 
And the sceptre in his hand ; 
Swords are glancing, harps are ringing, 
Where he moveth through the land. 

*' All before the monarch bending 
Render him the homage due, 
And the holy German Empire 
Foundeth he at Aix anew." 

Wilhelm Beckmann, who painted the 
" Death of Barbarossa," was born at Dussel- 
dorf in 1852, and had Eduard Bendemann 



Charles V. 57 

for his master. *' Hussites Receiving the 
Sacrament before Battle," "Wagner at 
Home," "Luther after his Discourse at the 
Diet of Worms," and ''Surrender of the 
Castle of Rosenberg in the Hussite Wars, 
1427," are the titles of some of his paintings. 



CHARLES V. 

" When he was born into the world, he was born 
a soldier." — Duke of Alva. 

Charles is said to have declared that the 
three greatest captains of his age were, him- 
self first, then Alva, and then Montmorency. 
He usually said to the young officers who 
came to take service under his banner, 
" Pray only for my health and my life, for 
so long as I have these I will never leave 
you idle ; at least in France. I love peace 
no better than the rest of you. I was born 
and bred to arms, and must of necessity 



58 The Great Masters of Warfare 

keep on my harness till I can bear it no 
longer." 

Navagero, the Venetian ambassador to the 
emperor's court, wrote to the doge in 1546: 
" It is the received opinion that the emperor 
has no better general in the army than him- 
self. . . . He is present in every place, sees 
everything, and forgetting that he is a great 
emperor, he does the work of a subaltern or 
inferior captain." 

He was, however, signally repulsed in 
1552, at the siege of Metz, which was ably 
defended by the French, under the leader- 
ship of Francis of Lorraine, Duke of Guise, 
against the imperial army, which numbered 
at least sixty thousand men. 

"The chief command, under the emperor, 
was committed to the Duke of Alva, assisted 
by the Marquis de Marignano, together with 
the most experienced of the Italian and 
Spanish generals. As it was now toward 
the end of October, these intelligent officers 



Charles V\ 59 

represented the great danger of beginning, 
at such an advanced season, a siege which 
could not fail to prove very tedious. But 
Charles adhered to his own opinion with his 
usual obstinacy and, being confident that he 
had made such preparations and taken such 
precautions as would ensure success, he 
ordered the city to be invested. As soon 
as the Duke of Alva appeared, a large body 
of the French sallied out and attacked his 
vanguard with great vigor, put it in confu- 
sion, and killed or took prisoners a consider- 
able number of men. By this early specimen 
which they gave of the conduct of their 
officers, as well as the valor of their troops, 
they showed the imperialists what an enemy 
they had to encounter, and how dear every 
advantage must cost them. The place, how- 
ever, was completely invested, the trenches 
were opened, and the other works be- 
gun. . . . 

"The Duke of Guise, though deeply af- 



6o The Great Masters of Warfare 

fected with his brother's misfortune, did not 
remit in any degree the vigor with which 
he defended the town. He harassed the be- 
siegers by frequent salHes, in which his 
officers were so eager to distinguish them- 
selves, that, his authority being hardly suffi- 
cient to restrain the impetuosity of their 
courage, he was obUged at different times 
to shut the gates, and to conceal the keys, 
in order to prevent the princes of the blood 
and noblemen of the first rank from exposing 
themselves to danger in every sally. He 
repaired in the night what the enemy's artil- 
lery had beat down during the day, or erected 
behind the ruined works new fortifications of 
almost equal strength. The imperialists, on 
their part, pushed on the attack with great 
spirit, and carried forward at once approaches 
against different parts of the town. But the 
art of attacking fortified places was not then 
arrived at that degree of perfection to which 
it was carried toward the close of the six- 



Charles V. at the Siege of Met^. 

From painting by Lucien Melingue. 



Charles V. 6 1 

teenth century, during the long war in the 
Netherlands. The besiegers, after the un- 
wearied labor of many weeks, found that 
they had made but little progress, and 
although their batteries had made breaches 
in different places, they saw, to their aston- 
ishment, works suddenly appear, in demolish- 
ing which their fatigues and dangers would 
be renewed. The emperor, enraged at the 
obstinate resistance which his army met 
with, left Thionville, where he had been 
confined by a violent fit of the gout ; and 
though still so infirm that he was obliged 
to be carried in a litter, he repaired to the 
camp, that, by his presence, he might animate 
the soldiers, and urge on the attack with 
greater spirit. Upon his arrival, new batteries 
were erected, and new efforts were made 
with redoubled ardor. 

" But by this time, winter had set in with 
great rigor ; the camp was alternately del- 
uged with rain or covered with snow ; at 



62 The Great Masters of Warfare 

the same time provisions were become ex- 
tremely scarce, as a body of French cavalry, 
which hovered in the neighborhood, often 
interrupted the convoys or rendered their 
arrival difficult and uncertain. Diseases 
began to spread among the soldiers, espe- 
cially among the Italians and Spaniards, 
unaccustomed to such inclement weather; 
great numbers were disabled from serving, 
and many died. At length, such breaches 
were made as seemed practicable, and Charles 
resolved to hazard a general assault, in spite 
of all the remonstrances of his generals 
against the imprudence of attacking a numer- 
ous garrison, conducted and animated by the 
most gallant of the French nobility, with an 
army weakened by disease, and disheartened 
with ill success. The Duke of Guise, sus- 
pecting the emperor's intentions from the 
extraordinary movements which he observed 
in the enemy's camp, ordered all his troops 
to their respective posts. They appeared 



Charles V. 63 

immediately on the walls, and behind the 
breaches, with such a determined counte- 
nance, so eager for the combat, and so well 
prepared to give the assailants a warm recep- 
tion, that the imperialists, instead of ad- 
vancing to the charge when the word of 
command was given, stood motionless in a 
timid, dejected silence. The emperor, per- 
ceiving that he could not trust troops whose 
spirits were so much broken, retired abruptly 
to his quarters, complaining that he was now 
deserted by his soldiers, who deserved no 
longer the name of men. 

" Deeply as this behavior of his troops 
mortified and affected Charles, he would not 
hear of abandoning the siege, though he 
saw the necessity of changing the method 
of attack. He suspended the fury of his 
batteries, and proposed to proceed by the 
more secure but tedious method of sapping. 
But as it still continued to rain or to snow 
almost incessantly, such as were employed 



64 The Great Masters of Warfare 

in this service endured incredible hardships ; 
and the Duke of Guise, whose industry was 
not inferior to his valor, discovering all 
their mines, counterworked them, and pre- 
vented their effect. At last, Charles finding 
it impossible to contend any longer with the 
seventy of the season, and with enemies 
whom he could neither overpower by force 
nor subdue by art, while at the same time 
a contagious distemper raged among his 
troops, and cut off daily great numbers of 
officers as well as the soldiers, yielded to the 
solicitations of his generals, who conjured 
him to save the remains of his army by 
a timely retreat. 'Fortune,' says he, *I 
now perceive, resembles other females, and 
chooses to confer her favors on young men, 
while she turns her back on those who are 
advanced in years.' 

*' Upon this, he gave orders immediately to 
raise the siege, and submitted to the disgrace 
of abandoning the enterprise, after having 



Charles V. 65 

continued fifty-six days before the town, 
during which time he had lost upwards of 
thirty thousand men, who died of diseases 
or were killed by the enemy." 

Lucien Melingue's picture of the gouty 
and ailing emperor being assisted into his 
litter in the snow-covered camp before Metz 
is an excellent example of the ability of the 
artist, who died in 1889, at forty-seven. The 
Luxembourg holds his '' Etienne Marcel and 
the Dauphin Charles," and he won a first 
class medal at the Salon of 1877, with "The 
Morning of the lOth Thermidor." 



66 The Great Masters of Warfare 



KINK 

" In war ... he was inferior to no commander in the 
world during the long and belligerent period to which his 
life belonged. . . . But his professed eulogists admitted 
his enormous avarice, while the world has agreed that 
such an amount of stealth and ferocity, of patient vindic- 
tiveness and universal bloodthirstiness, were never found 
in a savage beast of the forest, and but rarely in a human 
bosom." — Motley. 

Ferdinand Alvarez de Toledo, Duke 
of Alva, was, in his youth, a very hero of 
romance. Brave and enthusiastic, he had 
proved his prowess on a battle-field when but 
sixteen years of age, and a later exploit con- 
sisted in riding from Hungary to Spain and 
back in seventeen days, for the sake of a 
brief visit to his newly married wife, to whom 
he was ardently attached. Such a chivalrous 
deed seems but little in keeping with the 
Duke of Alva who established, to his ever- 
lasting infamy, the terrible " Council of 
Blood." 



Alva 67 

" In the same despatch of the 9th Septem- 
ber (1567) in which the duke communicated 
to PhiHp the capture of Egmont and Horn, 
he announced to him his determination to 
estabUsh a new court for the trial of crimes 
committed during the recent period of 
troubles. This wonderful tribunal was ac- 
cordingly created with the least possible 
delay. It was called the Council of Troubles, 
but it soon acquired the terrible name, by 
which it will be forever known in history, of 
the Blood Council. It superseded all other 
institutions. Every court, from those of the 
municipal magistrates up to the supreme 
councils of the provinces, was forbidden to 
take cognizance in future of any cause grow- 
ins: out of the late troubles. The council of 
state, although it was not formally disbanded, 
fell into complete desuetude, its members 
being occasionally summoned into Alva's 
private chambers in an irregular manner, 
while its principal functions were usurped 



6S The Great Masters of Warfare 

by the Blood Council. Not only citizens of 
every province, but the municipal bodies, and 
even the sovereign provincial estates them- 
selves, were compelled to plead, like humble 
individuals, before this new and extraordinary 
tribunal. It is unnecessary to allude to the 
absolute violation which was thus committed 
of all charters, laws and privileges, because 
the very creation of the council was a bold 
and brutal proclamation that those laws and 
privileges were at an end. The constitution 
or maternal principle of this suddenly erected 
court was of a twofold nature. It defined 
and it punished the crime of treason. The 
definitions, couched in eighteen articles, de- 
clared it to be treason to have delivered or 
signed any petition against the new bishops, 
the Inquisition, or the edicts ; to have toler- 
ated public preaching under any circum- 
stances, to have omitted resistance to the 
image-breaking, to the field-preaching, or to 
the presentation of the request by the nobles, 



Alva 69 

and 'either through sympathy or surprise,' 
to have asserted that the king did not pos- 
sess the right to deprive all the provinces of 
their liberties, or to have maintained that 
this present tribunal was bound to respect 
in any manner any laws or any charters. In 
these brief and simple, but comprehensive 
terms was the crime of high treason defined. 
The punishment was still more briefly, simply, 
and comprehensively stated, for it was instant 
death in all cases. So well, too, did this new 
and terrible engine perform its work, that in 
less than three months from the time of its 
erection, eighteen hundred human beings had 
suffered death by its summary proceedings ; 
some of the highest, the noblest, and the 
most virtuous in the land among the number ; 
nor had it then manifested the slightest indi- 
cation of faltering in its dread career. 

" Yet, strange to say, this tremendous 
court, thus established upon the ruins of all 
the ancient institutions of the country, had not 



70 The Great Masters of Warfare 

been provided with even a nominal authority 
from any source whatever. The king had 
granted it no letters patent or charter, nor 
had even the Duke of Alva thought it worth 
while to grant any commissions, either in his 
own name or as captain-general, to any of 
the members composing the board. The 
Blood Council was merely an informal club, 
of which the duke was perpetual president, 
while the other members were all appointed 
by himself. 

" Of these subordinate councillors, two had 
the right of voting, subject, however, in all 
cases, to his final decision, while the rest of 
the number did not vote at all. It had not, 
therefore, in any sense, the character of a 
judicial, legislative, or executive tribunal, but 
was purely a board of advice by which the 
bloody labors of the duke were occasionally 
lightened as to detail, while not a feather's 
weight of power or of responsibility was re- 
moved from his shoulders. He reserved for 



A Family of Nobles before the Council of "Blood. 

From painting by Charles Soubre. 



Alva yi 

himself the final decision upon all causes 
which should come before the council, and 
stated his motives for so doing with grim 
simplicity. 'Two reasons,' he wrote to the 
king, * have determined me thus to limit the 
power of the tribunal ; the first that, not 
knowing its members, 1 might be easily 
deceived by them ; the second, that the men 
of law only condemn for crimes wJiicJi are 
proved; whereas your Majesty knows that 
affairs of state are governed by very different 
rules from the laws which they have here! 

"... Such being the method of operation, 
it may be supposed that the councillors were 
not allowed to slacken in their terrible indus- 
try. The register of every city, village, and 
hamlet throughout the Netherlands showed 
the daily lists of men, women, and children 
thus sacrificed at the shrine of the demon 
who had obtained the mastery over this un- 
happy land. It was not often that an indi- 
vidualwas of sufficient importance to be tried 



J 2 The Great Masters of Warfare 

— if trial it could be called — by himself. It 
was found more expeditious to send them in 
batches to the furnace. Thus, for example, 
on the 4th of January, eighty-four inhabitants 
of Valenciennes were condemned ; on another 
day, ninety-five miscellaneous individuals, 
from different places in Flanders ; on an- 
other, forty-six inhabitants of Malines ; on 
another, thirty-five persons from different 
localities, and so on. 

*'. . . Thus the whole country became a 
charnel-house ; the death-bell tolled hourly in 
every village ; not a family but was called to 
mourn for its dearest relatives, while the sur- 
vivors stalked listlessly about, the ghosts of 
their former selves, among the wrecks of 
their former homes. The spirit of the nation, 
within a few months after the arrival of Alva, 
seemed hopelessly broken. The blood of its 
best and bravest had already stained the 
scaffold ; the men to whom it had been ac- 
customed to look for guidance and protection 



Alva 73 

were dead, in prison, or in exile. Submission 
had ceased to be of any avail, flight was im- 
possible, and the spirit of vengeance had 
alighted at every fireside. The mourners 
went daily about the streets, for there was 
hardly a house which had not been made 
desolate. The scaffolds, the gallows, the 
funeral-piles, which had been sufficient in 
ordinary times, furnished now an entirely 
inadequate machinery for the incessant exe- 
cutions. Columns and stakes in every street, 
the door-posts of private houses, the fences in 
the fields, were laden with human carcasses, 
strangled, burned, beheaded. The orchards 
in the country bore on many a tree the 
hideous fruit of human bodies.'* 



74 ^/^^' Great Masters of Wai'fare 



DRAKE 

"Chaste in his Hfe, just in his dealings, true of his 
word, and merciful to those that were under him, hating 
nothing so much as idleness." — Thomas Fuller. 

To the majority of people, the best known 
incident in Drake's life is probably one con- 
nected with the Great Armada — how, when 
the famous English sailor was playing Ijowls 
one July day on Plymouth Hoe, word was 
brought that the Spanish fleet had been 
sighted off the Lizard, and Drake checked 
the disposition of his officers to put to sea at 
once by laughingly declaring that there was 
plenty of time to "win the game and beat 
the Spaniards, too." 

Yet, though Drake played an important 
part in the defeat of the Armada, his renown, 
through circumstances which space forbids 
explaining here, rests mainly on other ex- 
ploits. One of the most noteworthy of these 



Drake 75 

was performed at Cadiz in 1587, the year 
before the coming of Phihp's ships-of-war to 
the hoped-for conquest of England. It is 
thus described by an EngUsh writer : " By 
all the rules of war, on which Borough was 
the great authority in the service, to attack 
without the most elaborate precautions was 
madness. But Drake was born to break 
rules. He was ready to pit bowline and 
broadside against oars and chasers. In vain 
Borough pleaded for waiting at least till 
nightfall ; Drake would not listen. The 
enemy were before him ; his authority was 
in his pocket ; the wind held fair ; and, to the 
vice-admiral's disgust, at four o'clock in the 
afternoon he stood in. 

''From Port. St. Mary two galleys had 
been ordered out to ascertain the stranger's 
intention, and at these Drake dashed, nor 
did they escape without severe punishment. 
As he opened the harbor there lay before 
him, opposite the shore end of the town, 



'J 6 The Great Masters of Warfare 

some sixty sail of ships, and under the sec- 
ond battery were a crowd of caravels and 
small barks. Almost every class and every 
nationality were represented in the throng, 
and all of them, except those which were 
preparing for the American voyage, were 
engaged in some way or other upon the ser- 
vice of the great enterprise. Some were 
loaded, some loading, some waiting for a 
cargo, and almost all waiting for their guns 
to arrive from Italy. Many of them had no 
sails, it being the practice to remove them 
from requisitioned ships in order to prevent 
desertion. As Drake's fire upon the galleys 
declared his purpose, the harbor became a 
scene of terror and confusion. Every vessel 
that had means of movement cut its cables 
and fled for the nearest refuge. A score 
or so of small French and native craft got 
over the shoals into Port St. Mary, and six 
Dutch hulks made for Port Royal. To cover 
the rest, ten galleys were seen to put boldly 



Drake 77 

out from under the first battery and bear 
down upon Drake's beam. But he was not 
to be frightened. Leaving the merchantmen 
to take the helpless vessels in hand, with the 
four queen's ships he defiantly met the Span- 
ish attack. Passing across the course of the 
advancing galleys, he received them with 
raking broadsides. It was a lesson that 
needed no repeating. Torn and mangled 
by the unprecedented storm of fire, they 
turned and fled. Two retired beyond Pun- 
tales without more ado, and made off to Port 
Royal ; seven took up an unassailable posi- 
tion inside the Puercas reef, where they were 
covered by the castle guns, while the tenth 
had to be hauled ashore to save her from 
sinking. Thus left to complete their even- 
ing's work unmolested, the Enghsh came to 
anchor amongst their prizes. 

" By nightfall all the vessels that had not 
been able to get into the inner harbor were 
in Drake's hands. One, a large 'argosy' 



78 The Great Masters of Warfare 

carrying forty guns, was unfortunately sunk 
by the English fire. Those that had sails 
were kept, and the rest were plundered and 
given to the flames. All this was done 
under fire of the second battery. So now 
by the flare of the conflagration, as the burn- 
ing ships drifted upon the shoals, Drake 
ordered the Me^xhant Royal to lead the 
private ships close up to the Puntales pas- 
sage, and there to anchor out of range of the 
town guns. He himself took up a position 
somewhat to seaward, with the other royal 
ships near him, to cover his merchantmen 
from a fresh attack by the galleys. Bor- 
ough, it seems, was anxious to complete 
their work at once and get out safely to sea 
again, content with the havoc they had 
wrought. But Drake would not listen to 
such caution. Great as was the destruction, 
he was still unsatisfied. As yet there was 
little to show of profit to the adventurers. 
He had still another exploit in his mind, and, 



Drake 79 

dismissing the captains who had come to 
consult him, he ordered them to He quiet all 
night and not move unless he did. 

" At daylight next morning Drake weighed, 
and to Borough's dismay, instead of working 
out, moved the Bonaventure still farther in, 
and came to anchor amongst the rearmost 
merchantmen. In the inner harbor lay 
a splendid vessel belonging to no less a 
person than Santa Cruz himself, the com- 
mander-in-chief of the English enterprise ; 
this he was resolved to take, and regardless 
of the two galleys that were in the inner 
harbor covering the shipping at Port Royal, 
he rapidly organized a flotilla of the pinnaces 
and boats of the fleet, and with the McrcJiant 
Royal led them in on the flood in person to 
effect the capture. . . . Meanwhile Drake's 
work was completed, and having gutted Santa 
Cruz's galleon and set her on fire in spite of 
the galleys, the flotilla and the Merchant 
Royal came out. During the past thirty-six 



8o The Great Masters of Warfare 

hours, the fleet had been entirely re-victualled 
with wine, oil, biscuit, and dried fruits. Thou- 
sands of tons of shipping, and a vast quantity 
of stores had been destroyed, and six vessels 
laden with provisions were prizes in the fleet. 
The official Spanish return sets the loss down 
at twenty-four vessels, valued with their 
cargoes at 172,000 ducats, or about three- 
quarters of a million of our money, but all 
told it was probably still more. Satisfied 
at last, by midday Drake had the inshore 
division all in their positions again, and in 
fine order prepared to make sail. But now, 
as luck would have it, the wind fell, and he 
had to remain where he was, exposed to all 
the devices the Spanish could invent to des- 
troy him. By this time troops were pour- 
ing along the isthmus into Cadiz, and the 
Spaniards, inspired with new life, made every 
effort to take advantage of Drake's predica- 
ment. Guns were moved down into the 
sand-hills and brought to bear on the fleet, 



Drake 8 1 

fire-ships were launched against him with the 
tide, and the galleys attacked again and 
again. Now, if ever, was their time. ' There 
were never galleys,' says one English report, 
'that had more fit place for their advantage 
in fight ; for upon the shot that they received 
they had present succor from the town, 
which they used sundry times, we riding in 
a narrow gut, the place yielding no better,' 
yet all was of no avail. Drake, the day 
before, had demonstrated the superiority, in 
a wind, of well-armed broadside ships against 
more than double their number of galleys; 
now he was to prove it in a calm. If the 
smooth water was favorable to vessels of 
free movement, it was also favourable to 
gunnery. Galleys, we have seen, never 
carried more than one gun of long range. 
The Bonaventiire had sixteen (culverins, 
cannons, and demi-culverins). The result 
was that the galleys one after another were 
disabled and compelled to retire before they 



82 The Gj^eat Masters of Warfare 

could get within effective range. Nor were 
the fire-ships more successful. Not one did 
the Enghsh allow to approach them, and as 
they watched the vessels burning themselves 
out harmlessly upon the shoals, they laughed 
to think how the Spaniards were saving them 
trouble. Still the calm continued, and for 
all that day they had to lie where they were, 
harassed by the Spanish fire. It was not till 
two o'clock the next morning that the land 
wind sprang up again. Drake immediately 
made sail, and sweeping the galleys once 
more from his path, stood out past the 
batteries. 'Then,' says the 'Brief Relation/ 
'having performed this notable service, we 
came out of the Road of Cadiz on the Friday 
morning with very little loss, not worth the 
mentioning.' Ten of the galleys presumed 
to give chase, and upon the weather falling 
calm again, when the English were barely 
outside, they once more attacked. During 
the whole forenoon the action continued, but 



1 



The Admiral of the Spanish Armada Surrenders 
to Drake. 

From painting by Seymour Lucas. 



Drake 83 

with the same result as before. Before the 
galleys had inflicted any harm on their 
enemy, a south breeze sprang up, and they 
were compelled to draw off and leave Drake 
to anchor outside in full view of the town, in 
triumph and undisturbed." 

The " Surrender " depicted in the painting 
we here repeat was that of the Spanish ad- 
miral Don Pedro de Valdes, who commanded 
a division of the Armada, to Drake, on board 
of the Revenge. John Seymour Lucas, a 
Royal Academician (born in 1849), ^^^ 
painted *'The Surrender," has also portrayed 
the episode of Drake and his captains at 
bowls, in his picture entitled "The Armada 
in Sight." Lucus has contributed to British 
art several other works of a historic nature, 
such as ''The Gordon Riots," ''Charles I. 
before Gloucester," "A 'Whip' for Van 
Tromp," and "St. Paul's: The King's Visit 
to Wren." " William the Conqueror Granting 
the Charter to the Citizens of London," by 



84 The Great Masters of Warfaj^e 

Lucas, is one of the frescos in the Royal 
Exchange. 

SPINOLA 

'* When Maurice of Nassau, second son of William the 
Silent, and even more distinguished in the field than his 
father, was asked who was the greatest living general, he 
replied, * Spinola is the second.' " — S. Arthur Bent. 

Allowing that Maurice was right in esti- 
mating himself as \\\^ first general of his day, 
he was so nearly matched by his great adver- 
sary, the Marquis Spinola, that he must often 
have experienced — 

" the stern joy which warriors feel 
In foemen worthy of their steel." 

It was in the year (1625) of Maurice's 
death that Spinola captured Breda, after a 
ten months' siege, during which the Dutch 
defended the city with great valor and endur- 
ance. The siege was undertaken by Spinola 
on receipt of this laconic order from Philip 



The Surrender of Breda. 

P>om painting by Velazquez. 



Spinola 8 5 

IV., "Marquis, take Breda" — and its suc- 
cess added greatly to his reputation. The 
capture of Breda is, indeed, considered to be 
Spinola's most illustrious action. 

This distinguished general, although in the 
service of Spain, was an Italian, a native of 
Genoa. Here, though of ancient family, he 
had been engaged in commerce, until the 
renown obtained by his younger brother 
Frederick, an admiral in the Spanish navy, 
aroused in him an ambition to seek similar 
distinction. 

It may have been Spinola's business train- 
ing which prompted him to do what few 
generals of his period endeavored to per- 
form, namely, to see that his soldiers were 
paid regularly and fully, and this custom 
proved of the greatest advantage to him. 
The words which he addressed to his army, 
when about to cross the Rhine, are well 
worth noting in this connection : 

"And as Julius Caesar, when he passed the 



86 TJlc Gi'cat Mastei's of Warfare 

river in Italy, set up his resolution to put up 
for the Roman Empire or to die under the 
attempt, so, though there be great difference 
in the enterprise and far more in the person, 
yet I will with your help and the sword make 
my passage through this country before us, 
and possess it ; and, as I shall receive com- 
mandment from my king to join with the 
imperial army in a contest which I undertake 
for the Catholic religion, and for the just 
rights of the emperor, you shall not want for 
anything, having, as ye well know, brought 
sufficient treasure with me. And for a testi- 
mony of my love to you, and of my confidence 
in you, I will expressly give order that you 
have two months' pay beforehand, which 
shall be paid unto you before you pass any 
further upon my service. We are seven and 
twenty thousand men at arms by muster ; 
better men the world cannot afford. Of 
these, above three-fourths have met the 
enemy in the face. All are valiant and 



spina la 87 

loyal, and sithence the eye of all the Chris- 
tian world and more is upon us, let us, for 
God's sake and our own, effect things worthy 
of so valorous an army. So I commend you 
all and our endeavors to the affection of 
the Almighty." 

Ambrogio Spinola was, moreover, humane, 
just, and generous, in short a gentleman, as 
he certainly looks in the picture of the sur- 
render of Breda, painted by his friend, the 
great Velazquez, wherein the courteous con- 
queror receives the key of the fallen city 
from its governor, Justin of Nassau. 

It is not pleasant to read that Spinola' s 
eminent services to Spain were ill requited. 
He is said to have died of a broken heart — 
a victim to the ingratitude of princes. 



S8 The Great Masters of Warfare 



WALLENSTEIN 

" He was, undoubtedly, one of the greatest generals of 
his time, and thus in a sense superior to all others ; for 
he knew how to collect armies, how to discipline them in 
the shortest time, how to organize them, how to direct 
them best in combat, and how most ce'rtainly to lead 
them to victory." — Sir Edward Cust. 

Three pictures having Wallen stein for 
their subject were painted by the celebrated 
Piloty. One, which was at the Paris Expo- 
sition of 1878, shows the imperiaUst general 
on his way to Eger ; another, which we here 
present, depicts the assassins of Wallenstein 
carrying his dead body from the chamber, 
while the astrologer, Seni, looks on in hor- 
ror ; and the third, the best known of all 
(being in the New Pinacothek at Munich), 
represents Seni standing in sad and solemn 
contemplation by the Hfeless form of his 
great patron. 

Had Wallenstein' s towering ambition in- 



Wallenstein 89 

deed led him so far that he was ripe for 
revolt against his master, the Emperor Fer- 
dinand, or was the death secretly and with- 
out trial inflicted upon him, the cowardly 
deed of an ingrate who thus basely repaid 
the immense services rendered to his crown 
by the great general ? Historians do not 
agree in their answers to this question. 

Schiller allies himself with those who 
believe Wallenstein a traitor, as may be 
seen by reading these lines from the fifth 
act of his drama. The scene is in Eger, just 
before the assassination of the general by 
some of his own soldiers : 

"Scene IV. — Wallenstein, Gordon 

WALLENSTEIN 

All quiet in the town ? 

GORDON 

The town is quiet. 

wallenstein 
I hear a boisterous music ! and the castle 
Is lighted up. Who are the revellers? 



90 The Great Masters of Warfare 

GORDON 

There is a banquet given at the castle 

To the Count Terzky and Field Marshal Illo. 

WALLENSTEIN 

In honor of the victory. — This tribe 

Can show their joy in nothing else but feasting. 

\^Rings. The Groo7n of the Chauiber enters. 
Unrobe me. I will lay me down to sleep. 

[Wallenstein tatees the keys from Gordon. 
So we are guarded from all enemies, 
And shut in with sure friends, 
For all must cheat me, or a face like this 

{^Fixing his eye on Gordon. 
Was ne'er a hypocrite's mask. 

yrhe Groom of the Chamber takes off his 7nan- 
tle, cottar, and scarf 

WALLENSTEIN 

Take care — what is that? 

groom of THE CHAMBER 

The golden chain is snapped in two. 

WALLENSTEIN 

Well, it has lasted long enough. Here — give it. 

[^He takes and looks at the chain. 
'Twas the first present of the emperor. 
He hung it round me in the war of Friule, 



Wallenstein 9 1 

He being then archduke ; and I have worn it 

Till now from habit — 

From superstition, if you will. Belike, 

It was to be a talisman to me ; 

And while I wore it on my neck in faith, 

It was to chain to me all my life long 

The volatile fortune, whose first pledge it was. 

Well, be it so ! Henceforward a new fortune 

Must spring up for me ; for the potency 

Of this charm is dissolved. 

\Groom of the Chamber retires with the vest- 
ments. Wallenstein rises, takes a stride 
across the room, and stands at last before 
Gordon in a posture of meditation. 
How the old time returns upon me ! I 
Behold myself once more at Burgau, where 
We two were pages of the court ; together 
We oftentimes disputed : thy intention 
Was ever good ; but thou wert wont to play 
The moralist and preacher, and wouldst rail at me 
That I strove after things too high for me. 
Giving my faith to bold, unlawful dreams. 
And still extol to me the golden mean. 
— Thy wisdom hath been proved a thriftless friend 
To thy own self. See, it has made thee early 
A superannuated man, and (but 
That my munificent stars will intervene) 



92 The Great Masters of Warfare 

Would let thee in some miserable corner 
Go out like an untended lamp. 

GORDON 

My Prince ! 
With light heart the poor fisher moors his boat, 
And watches from the shore the loft}^ ship 
Stranded amid the storm. 

WALLENSTEIN 

Art thou already 
In harbor then, old man ? Well ! I am not. 
The unconquer'd spirit drives me o'er life's billows ; 
My planks still firm, my canvas swelling proudly. 
Hope is my goddess still, and youth my inmate ; 
And while we stand thus front to front, almost 
I might presume to say, that the swift years 
Have passed by powerless o'er my unblanched hair. 
\^He jnoves with long strides across the saloon 

and rejnaijis on the opposite side, over 

against Gordon. 
Who now persists in calling Fortune false ? 
To me she has proved faithful ; with fond love 
Took me from out the common ranks of men, 
And, like a mother goddess, with strong arm 
Carried me swiftly up the steps of life. 
Nothing is common in my destiny, 
Nor in the furrows of my hand. Who dares 



Wallenstein 93 

Interpret then my life for me as 'twere 
One of the undistinguishable many ? 
True, in this present moment I appear 
Fallen low indeed ; but I shall rise again. 
The high flood will soon follow on this ebb ; 
The fountain of my fortune, which now stops, 
Repress'd and bound by some malicious star, 
Will soon in joy play forth from all its pipes. 

GORDON 

And yet remember I the good old proverb, 
" Let the night come before we praise the day." 
I would be slow from long-continued fortune 
To gather hope : for Hope is the companion 
Given to the unfortunate by pitying Heaven. 
Fear hovers round the head of prosperous men, 
For still unsteady are the scales of fate. 

WALLENSTEIN {S7mlmg) 

I hear the very Gordon, that of old 

Was wont to preach, now once more preaching : 

I know well that all sublunary things 

Are still the vassals of vicissitude. 

The unpropitious gods demand their tribute; 

This long ago the ancient pagans knew, 

And therefore of their own accord they offer'd 

To themselves injuries, so to atone 



94 ^/^^ Great Masters of Warfare 

The jealousy of their divinities : 

And human sacrifices bled to Typhon. 

\^After a paiise^ serious^ and in a more subdued 
manner. 
I, too, have sacrificed to him. — " 

Mitchell thus describes the murder of 
Wallen stein : " Toward midnight, Butler, 
followed by Devereux and six dragoons, pro- 
ceeded to Wallenstein's quarters ; and as it 
was not unusual for officers of rank to call 
upon the general at late hours, the guard 
allowed them to enter. Devereux, with his 
party, ascended the stairs, while Butler re- 
mained below to wait the result. 

" It is said that Wallenstein had, only a 
few minutes before, dismissed for the night 
an Italian astrologer of the name of Seni, 
who was then attached to his household, and 
who declared that the stars still boded im- 
pending danger, which Wallenstein himself 
either could not or would not see. He had 
just retired to bed, and the servant who had 



The Murder of IValLenstein. 

From painting by Carl von Piloty. 





" 


^^^^^^^H^Xl;!^^^^;^^-^^^^^ .^^^ 


I^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Bjj^K^*^'^^^^^ -^ J^W^ ^^^^^^^Prl^ .i^'^R^H^l 


^^^^^^HH^^di^sS^^'^ .v'^IH 


RS^^^ ""MHI 


^^T^'^^i^^^H 



Wallenstein 95 

undressed him was descending the stair 
when he met Devereux and his party and 
desired them to make less noise, ^as the 
duke was going to sleep.' 'But this is a 
time for noise ! ' shouted Devereux, as he 
pressed on. Finding the door of the bed- 
chamber locked, he burst it open with his 
foot, and entered, followed by the soldiers. 
Wallenstein was standing at the window: 
startled by the screams of the ladies, Terzky 
and Kinsky, who lodged in the house oppo- 
site, and who had just learned the murder of 
their husbands, he had opened the casement 
and was asking the sentinel what was the 
matter, at the moment Devereux broke into 
the room. The sight of his long-honored 
and long-obeyed commander arrested not the 
hand of this bold and ruthless assassin. 
* Thou must die ! ' he exclaimed, and Wal- 
lenstein, true to his pride of character, dis- 
dained to parley, even for life, with a slave 
and a stabber. Dignified to the last, he 



96 The Great Masters of Warfare 

threw open his arms to the blow, and sunk 
without a word or groan beneath the first 
thrust of the traitor's halberd, the blade of 
which went right through his breast. Thus 
fell a man who, as Gualdo says, 'was one 
of the greatest commanders, m.ost generous 
princes, and most enlightened ministers of 
his own, or of any preceding time.' " 



GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 

" The great leader, captain, and king, the Lion of the 
North, and the bulwark of the Protestant faith, had a way 
of winning battles, taking towns, overrunning countries, 
and levying contributions, whilk made his service irresist- 
ibly delectable to all true-bred cavaliers who followed the 
noble profession of arms." 

— Scott's " Legend of Montrose." 

The greatest and best of the great cap- 
tains whose names are irrevocably linked 
with the history of the Thirty Years' War 
died at a younger age — excepting his suc- 
cessor, the gallant Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, 



Giistavus Adolphtis 97 

who perished at thirty - four — than any of 
the men who rose to eminence in the mighty 
struggle. 

The veteran Tilly was both defeated and 
mortally wounded at the battle of the Lech, 
in the spring of the same year (1632) that 
saw the death of Gustavus on the field of 
Liitzen a few months later. The Swedish 
hero then lacked a few days of thirty-eight 
years old, being some six months younger 
than the imperial general, Pappenheim, also 
killed at Liitzen. It is a matter of curious 
interest that this brave and battle-scarred 
Pappenheim, who had received over a hun- 
dred wounds, and was said to be the only 
one of his opponents whom Gustavus feared 
(if he feared any), not only affected to re- 
semble him in all things, " but, what was, 
indeed, more difficult, he did, indeed, resem- 
ble the King of Sweden in good morals and 
piety." 

Archbishop Trench, in his " Gustavus 



98 The Great Masters of Warfai^e 

Adolphus in Germany," gives us an admi- 
rable account of the end of the '' Lion of the 
North." He says : " The field of Liitzen, only 
a few miles from the Breitenfeld, and, like it, 
not then, for the last time, destined to take the 
rich incarnadine of blood, was the spot which 
his death should make memorable forever. 
There should be the appointed term and 
bourne of his short but glorious career. 
GustavLis would appear, for some time back, 
to have had a presentiment that the end was 
not far off. At the siege of Ingolstadt, — 
the only city, by the way, in Germany which, 
besieging, he did not take, — his horse was 
killed under him by a cannon-ball from the 
walls, and the king himself, hurled with it 
to the ground, was at first supposed, by those 
about him, to be slain as well. Had this 
been so, the same day (April 20, 1632) 
would have seen his death and that of Tilly, 
who had been carried to the city, and was 
dying there. His hour, however, had not 



Gustavus Adolphus before the battle of Liil{en. 

From painting by Ludvvig Braun. 



Giistavns Adolphus 99 

fully come ; and he rose, not seriously hurt, 
only saying to those about him, ' The apple 
is not ripe yet.' It was not ripe, but it was 
nearly so. Yet, whatever presentiment he 
may have had, he was more than cheerful as 
he went forth to this, the latest labor of his 
life. It was ever so with him upon such 
occasions, for in him were grandly fulfilled 
those grand lines of our own poet, who por- 
trays * The Happy Warrior ' as one who, — 

" ' called upon to face 
Some awful moment, to which Heaven has joined 
Great issues, good or bad, for humankind, 
Is happy as a lover, and attired 
With sudden brightness, like a man inspired.' 

A severe wound, received in his Polish cam- 
paigns, made the wearing of his armor very 
painful to him. When it was brought him 
this morning, he declined to put it on, say- 
ing, ' God is my armor,' and entered into 
battle without it. The story of his death is 

told in many ways ; and, while the broader 

L.oFC. 



lOO The Great Masters of Warfare 

features of the closing scene stand out 
before us distinct and clear, there is much 
uncertainty in the accessory details, and we 
have no choice but to select such of these as 
seem to us the best accredited, or, where 
there is no weight of evidence on the one 
side greater than on the other, the most 
probable ; and this, to the best of my judg- 
ment, I shall proceed to do. The king was 
a little short-sighted, and always, as I have 
already mentioned, tempted to expose him- 
self overmuch. That morning a heavy mist 
hung over the field ; and, in riding, accom- 
panied by a small staff, from one part of the 
field to another, he found himself suddenly 
face to face with some of the imperial cuiras- 
siers. ' Look out for those black fellows, or 
they will do us mischief,' he said, to those 
around him. But presently, whether urged 
on by his native impetuosity, by that Ber- 
serker rage latent in his Scandinavian blood, 
or that this was not now to be avoided, he was 



Gtistavus Adolphus lOi 

entangled in a conflict hand to hand with 
these. His left arm was shattered with a 
pistol-shot. At first, he thought to have 
remained on the field, and was unwilhng it 
should be known that he was wounded ; but, 
growing faint with pain and the loss of blood, 
he said to a German prince at his side, 
* Cousin, lead me out of the tumult, for I am 
hurt.' At this instant, an imperialist officer 
rode close behind him, — no one hindering, 
for he was not recognized as an enemy, — 
and shot the king between the shoulders. 
He fell from his horse, which dragged him 
a few paces, and then, disengaging itself and 
rushing wildly along the Swedish lines with 
bloody housings, announced to all that some 
misfortune had befallen the king. All who 
were round him fled, save one young Ger- 
man aide-de-camp or volunteer, who, dismount- 
ing, would fain have raised and set him on his 
own horse. The king stretched out his hands 
to him ; but the attempt to lift him was vain, 



I02 TJie Great Master's of Warfare 

for Gustavus was a large man, and probably 
wounded to the death already. Meanwhile, 
three of the enemy's horsemen rode up, and 
demanded who this officer of rank, that lay 
wounded on the ground, might be. Lobel- 
fing, — for he should not pass unnamed, — 
refusing to give the name, received several 
hurts, of which he died five days after, but 
was able to give this account of the latest 
moments of his lord. ' I am the King of 
Sweden,' feebly exclaimed Gustavus. A pis- 
tol-shot through the head and several sword- 
thrusts through the body were the answer. 
His hat, blackened with the powder and 
pierced with the ball, is still to be seen in 
the arsenal at Vienna, his bloody buff-coat 
as well. More is not known of the final 
agony, except that, when the tide of battle 
had a little ebbed, the body of the hero-king 
was found with the face to the ground, de- 
spoiled and stripped to the shirt, trodden 
under the hoofs of horses, trampled in the 



Gustavus Adolphiis 103 

mire, and disfigured with all these wounds. 
The surgeon who embalmed the corpse, that 
it might be sent to Sweden for burial, found 
upon it seven freshly inflicted wounds, with 
the scars and cicatrices of thirteen more. 
Such was the end. The pitcher which had 
gone often to the well zvas broken at last; 
but the treasure which the earthen vessel 
contained was not, with the broken sherds 
of that vessel, spilt upon the ground." 

The German battle-painter, Louis Braun, 
born in 1836, has produced two pictures of 
Gustavus at Liitzen, the one which we repro- 
duce, and another showing the death of the 
king. Besides these, among others, he has 
painted a " Tournament at Nuremberg in 
1496," a "Suabian Kirmess," " Episode from 
the Battle of Worth," " Capitulation of 
Sedan," " The Germans at Versailles," " The 
Entry into Paris," and a panorama of the 
battle of Sedan. 



104 ^/^^ Great Masters of Warfai'e 



CROMWELL 

" It was by his military genius, by the might of the 
legions that he created and controlled and led to victory 
upon victory ; it was at Marston and Naseby, at Preston 
and Worcester, in Ireland and at Dunbar, that Cromwell 
set his deep mark on the destinies of England as she was, 
and of that vaster dominion into which the English realm 
was in the course of ages to be transformed." 

— John Morley. 

The distinguished English writer from 
whose book on Cromwell the above lines are 
taken, sees an interesting similarity between 
the conflict at Bunker Hill and that at Mars- 
ton Moor. These battles, he says, '' rank 
among those engagements that have a lasting 
significance in history, where military results 
were secondary to moral effect. It was these 
encounters that first showed that the cham- 
pions of the popular cause intended and were 
able to make a stand-up fight against the 
forces of the monarchy." 

On the changeable July day when Mars- 



Cromivell 105 

ton Moor was fought, forty-five thousand men 
faced each other on either side of the ditch 
which divided the armies, during a long after- 
noon. Then, as Baldock's account says : 

" Rupert and Newcastle met and discussed 
the situation. It was seven o'clock, too late 
to begin the action. The Roundheads were 
short of provisions, there was no water but 
that in puddles on their side, the wells near 
Marston had already been drunk dry. It 
would be better to rest and refresh their men 
and attack the fasting enemy in the morning. 
Newcastle turned off to his coach to sup and 
sleep. Rupert to his, to solace his impatient 
temper with a pipe. Probably an order was 
passed through the ranks that the men might 
eat their suppers. But there were quick, 
eager eyes watching every movement in the 
royalist army from the corn-fields on the 
gentle slopes yonder. Scarcely had Rupert 
lit his pipe, when the well-known Puritan 
war-cry, the drawling chant of some old 



io6 TJie Great Masters of Warfare 

psaltn tune, struck his ear. He looked round 
— the whole Puritan army was advancing! 
Down off the Cow Warrant, past Bilton 
Breame, came Cromwell's steel-clad horse- 
men. Three hundred picked men of his own 
regiment led by himself formed the forlorn 
hope. On his right Crawford's infantry were 
pressing forward at the run, and farther to 
their right the Scots and Lord Fairfax's 
infantry were pushing through the hedgerows 
toward the ditch. Down by Long Marston 
village, Sir Thomas Fairfax's horse were 
crowding into the narrow lane which led 
across the ditch, or picking their way through 
the furze bushes on the extreme flank. The 
roar of cannon, the ring of musketry, the 
loud cries, the chanted psalms, and the tramp 
of men and horse confused the ear. A mo- 
ment before all had been stillness and silence, 
now all was movement and noise. Swinging 
himself into the saddle, Rupert galloped down 
to lead on his men and stop the rush of 



Cromwell at Marston Moor. 

From painting by Ernest Crofts. 



Cromwell 107 

Cromwell's troopers. It is said he led his 
own regiment in the van. But the Puritan for- 
lorn hope crossed the ditch in unbroken order, 
and crashed into the royaUst ranks. Unable 
to sustain the weight of the heavily armored, 
close-knit mass, Rupert's regiment gave way. 
The Cavalier second line came to its support 
and restored the fight, and, pressing on the 
flanks of Cromwell's chosen troopers, suc- 
ceeded even in driving them somewhat back. 
But they were in turn supported, and a 
furious fight ensued. ' We stood,' says 
Walton, 'at swords' point a pretty while, 
hacking at one another.' Then David Leslie, 
with his reserve of Scotch horse pushing into 
the gap between the Cavalier horse and foot, 
fell upon Rupert's flank, and at last Crom- 
well's squadrons ' brake through them, scat- 
tering them like a little dust.' 'They fly,' 
says Shngsby, ' along by Wilstrop woodside 
as fast and as thick as could be.' 

" Sending his leading troops on to press the 



io8 TJie Great Masters of Warfare 

pursuit, Cromwell re-formed the remainder 
ready for use elsewhere. In the centre the 
battle was raging furiously. Crawford's bri- 
gades, running on a level with Cromwell's 
horsemen, crossed the ditch, and their left 
wing, pouring into the gaps between the 
royal horse and foot, swung round to the 
right and fell on Tillyer's flanks, driving back 
the regiments on that side. This success 
enabled the Scots of the centre to cross the 
ditch. But then the forward movement was 
checked. Away on the Parliamentary right, 
Fairfax's troopers had dashed down the lane 
and through the furze bushes in some dis- 
order. As they approached the royalist Une, 
the fire from the musketeers behind the 
hedges and between the squadrons added to 
their disorder. Debouching on to the moor, 
they attempted to re-form, but being charged 
by Goring's horsemen, they were flung back 
in great confusion. Without giving them a 
moment's respite, Goring pressed furiously 



Cromwell 109 

on, and drove them back to and through the 
reserve of Scots. In a few minutes Fairfax's 
horsemen were scattered in hopeless rout. 
Galloping wildly back, they trampled the 
Yorkshire foot under their horses' hoofs. 
The panic spread ; the men threw away their 
arms and ran. Sir Thomas, plucking the 
white symbol out of his helmet, with a few 
followers broke through the royalist horse 
and joined Cromwell on the left. A troop of 
Balgony's Scotch lancers did the same. 
Eglington's horsemen preserved their ranks, 
but lost heavily. Excepting these, the whole 
Parliamentary right wing, horse and foot, 
were streaming across the fields in the wildest 
flight. After them spurred Goring in hot 
pursuit. 

" Sir Charles Lucas, who commanded part 
of the royalist horse of this left wing, kept 
his men back when Goring galloped off in 
pursuit. Wheeling to the right, he flung 
himself on the flank of the Scotch foot, now 



no The Gi'eat Masters of Warfare 

across the ditch, and hotly engaged with the 
royaHst foot. The Scotchmen fought gal- 
lantly, but lost heavily. Twice were the 
Cavaliers repulsed, but at a heavy price. 
Whole regiments disappeared or became 
mixed with others. Lumsden, seeing the 
danger, hurried up his reserves to support 
Lindsay's and Maitland's regiments, who 
were making a gallant stand. A third charge 
was repulsed, and Lucas himself dismounted, 
wounded, and taken prisoner. But no foot 
could much longer withstand these repeated 
attacks in front and flank. Unless help came 
soon they must be crushed. 

'' Cromwell, as soon as he had rallied his own 
and Leslie's squadrons, wheeled to his right, 
as Lucas had. done on the other flank, and 
fell on the right and rear of the royalist foot^,' 
hotly engaged with Crawford's brigades. 
Conspicuous amongst the royalists, stood 
Newcastle's own Northumbrian regiment. 
These men had sworn to dye their white 



Cromwell 1 1 1 

coats red in the blood of their foes. Attacked 
by horse and foot in front, flank, and rear, 
they refused to fly or yield ; and, like the 
king's regiment at Edgehill, died where they 
stood in their ranks. Only forty of them 
escaped. 

*' Sweeping down the line, Cromwell's troop- 
ers rode over and dispersed one royalist 
regiment after another. Suddenly, through 
the deepening twilight, their leader perceived 
the royal horse charging the flanks of the 
Scots, and pursuing the Yorkshire foot over 
the ridge beyond. He thus became aware 
for the first time that the Parliamentary right 
wing had been routed. Ever cool in the 
hottest fight, with his well-discipHned squad- 
rons always well in hand, Cromwell called his 
men off, and re-formed them in line of battle ; 
re-formed them on the same ground and fac- 
ing the same way as Goring' s horse had stood 
before the battle commenced. Crawford 
formed up his Eastern Association foot on 



I 12 The Great Masters of Warfare 

Cromwell's right. When all was ready, the 
signal to charge was given. 

*' Lucas's and Porter's men were reeling 
back from their last charge on the Scots. 
Goring's horsemen were returning from the 
chase, when they found the dreaded Ironsides 
drawn up across their path. In vain they 
tried to rally. Hampered now as Fairfax 
had been before, by hedgerows and bushes, 
they were, like him, caught before they 
could re-form. Cromwell's heavy, compact 
masses burst through their scattered squad- 
rons. In a few minutes the Cavaliers were 
urging their tired horses more vigorously 
in flight than they had just before in 
pursuit. 

" The remaining foot were soon dispersed. 
Darkness — it was now ten o'clock — stopped 
the pursuit, but the victory was already com- 
plete. Lucas, Porter, and Tillyer were pris- 
oners, with fifteen hundred officers and men. 
All the royalist cannon, 130 barrels of 



Cromwell 1 1 3 

powder, and ten thousand arms remained 
in the hands of the victors." 

The English poet, W. C. Bennett, has 
written a stuTing poem on the victory, from 
which the following verses are taken : 

" And Cromwell, his servant, spoke the word : 

Praise we the Lord ! 
' On ! smite for the Lord ! spare not ! ' we heard : 

Praise we the Lord ! 
Hotly our spirits within us stirred ; 
Reins were loosened and flanks were spurred, 
And the heathen went down before God and his 
word. 

To his name alone be the glory ! 

" Lo, the bow of the Lord was strong this day ; 

Praise we the Lord ! 
And the arm of our God was strong to slay ; 

Praise we the Lord ! 
He gave us the proud ones for a prey; 
He chased the mighty from out our way ; 
He gave us the high ones low to lay. 

To the Lord alone be the glory ! 

" Where are ye, ye noble and ye proud ? 
Praise w^e the Lord ! 



1 1 4 The Great Masters of Warfare 

Where are ye who cried 'gainst his saints aloud ? 

Praise we the Lord ! 
The great of the earth in death are bowed ; 
They who vaunted their strength his breath has 

cowed ; 
Bloody they lie, where the kite screams loud. 
To the Lord our God be glory ! 

" Lo, the Lord our helper hath heard our cries; 

Praise we the Lord ! 
He hath raised the foolish and shamed the wise ; 

Praise we the Lord ! 
In him our rock and our sure hope Hes ; 
To him shall the cry of his servants rise ; 
Woe to them who his chosen dare despise ! 

To the Lord our God be glory ! 

" Ho ! Baal priests, did we cry in vain ? 

Praise we the Lord ! 
He shall break ye, ye sons of Dagon, again ; 

Praise we the Lord ! 
He shall winnow the chaff from the priceless grain ; 
He shall skim the pot till no dross remain ; 
And the Lord our God and his saints shall reign ! 

To the Lord alone be glory ! " 

One of the leading^ military painters of 
England is Ernest Crofts, now a Royal Acad- 



Cromzvell 1 1 5 

emician, who, born at Leeds in 1857, studied 
his art in Germany under Emil Hunt en. His 
"Cromwell at Marston Moor" was at the 
Royal Academy in 1877. Several of his pic- 
tures have for their subject either Cromwell 
or Charles I., while others present episodes 
in the military careers of Napoleon and of 
his great antagonist, the Duke of Wellington. 
Crofts was awarded a bronze medal at the 
Paris Exhibition of i 



TURENNE 

" He preserved the reputation of a man of worth, wise 
and moderate, because his virtues and great talents, which 
were his own, covered weaknesses and faults which were 
common to him with so many other men." 

— Voltaire. 

Six thousand of Cromwell's famous " Iron- 
sides " once fought under Turenne against 
the Spaniards, at the battle of the Dunes, 
whither they had been sent by the Protector 
in accordance with a treaty made with France, 



1 1 6 TJie Girat Masters of Warfare 

in 1658, and materially aided in gaining the 
victory which brought about the Peace of the 
Pyrenees. 

Seventeen years later, Turenne fought his 
last campaign. During this he "crossed the 
Rhine by a bridge of boats at Ottenheim, 
and for some time kept oscillating between 
that place, where he had to defend his own 
communications, and Strasburg, which of- 
fered, without vigilance on his part, a pas- 
sage to the enemy. He found this arc too 
large, and contracted his exposed front by 
bringing his bridge somewhat lower down, to 
Altenheim. Above Strasburg the river is 
studded with countless islands, which offer 
great facilities for laying pontoons at any 
point. Then ensued a long struggle between 
him and Montecuculli, each endeavoring 
with all his ingenuity to starve the other ; 
encamping and decamping, threatening the 
neutral inhabitants of Strasburg, palisading 
the shallower channels of the river, and can- 



Tiirenne 1 1 / 

noimding the wider, to prevent the passage 
of meal and flour, striking out new foraging 
roads through unpenetrated forests, and ex- 
hausting the 'mere toys and arts of strategy. 
These manoeuvres were seasoned with more 
exciting matter : skirmishes, battle offered 
and refused, attempts to surprise the oppo- 
nents, or to cross the Rhine at some new 
spot. At last, near Sassbach, about half-way 
between Strasburg and Baden, Turenne broke 
from a deep reverie, with the words, ' I have 
them ! They will not give me the slip any 
more, and I shall now reap the fruits of a 
campaign so wearisome.' This fulness of 
anticipation was contrary to his usual cus- 
tom ; he had a very commendable habit on 
such occasions of holding his tongue. The 
enemies' camp betrayed many symptoms of 
agitation and of retreat, and somebody com- 
ing up said that the German infantry was in 
motion. He moved to observe them, ordered 
those about him not to follow, and said to the 



1 1 8 TJie Great Masters of Warfare 

Due d'Elbeuf, ' Nephew, stay here, you will 
only draw their attention.' Lord Hamilton 
saw him as he went past, and said, ' Come 
this way ; they are firing in that direction.' 
The viscount only answered, ' I do not want 
to be killed to-day,' and continued his course. 
St. Hilaire, lieutenant-general of artillery, 
then met him, and, stretching out his hand, 
said, ' Cast your eyes on the battery I have 
had planted there.' At this moment a can- 
non-shot carried off the arm of St. Hilaire, 
and struck right upon Turenne's belly ; the 
horse carried him back to the assembled 
staff, his head bowed upon the saddle, and 
the illustrious general fell dead in the arms 
of his people. Amid the sorrowful group, 
St. Hilaire, in the spirit of a good officer, 
told his son, who apprehended the loss of the 
arm would be mortal, not to weep for him, 
but for that great man, pointing to the corpse 
of the viscount. Hamilton, who alone pos- 
sessed any presence of mind, threw a cloak 



The Death of Turenne. 

From drawing by Alphonse de Neuville. 




^.M:&£M', 



Turenne 1 1 9 

over the dead, to conceal the misfortune from 
the soldiers. But the sad event got abroad ; 
the soldiers tore their hair, and cried, ' Our 
father is dead, and we are lost.' Then they 
flocked round the body, and, after weeping 
at the sight, demanded to be led against the 
enemy, that they might revenge their father's 
death. 

'' Two lieutenant-generals, one of them suf- 
fering from a wound in the foot, succeeded 
to the grave responsibilities of the situation ; 
they spent a long time in consultation. Im- 
patient of this indecision, the men called out, 
' Let loose the piebald, that will lead us.' 
The piebald was a horse Turenne had long 
ridden when with the army ; it had lost an 
ear in 1672. Notwithstanding the temper 
of the troops, a retreat across the Rhine was 
resolved on, and executed in confusion. 

" Montecuculli, the Austrian commander, 
when he heard of what had happened, did 
fitting homage to the memory of the de- 



120 TJie Great Masters of Warfare 

ceased. ' There died a man,' said he, * who 
was an honor to humanity.' As the re- 
mains of Turenne were conveyed toward 
Paris, mournful processions came out to 
meet them ; among other instances, the peo- 
ple of Langres went into mourning. A 
funeral service was performed at Notre 
Dame, at which the clergy, the Parliament, 
and university, and the corporation of Paris, 
attended. His bones were laid at St. Denis, 
and Louis XIV. granted a singular mark of 
his esteem, that they should repose in the 
royal chapel, among the kings and queens of 
France." 

In 1801, Napoleon transferred the remains 
of the great marshal to the church of the 
Invalides, where they now rest beside the 
ashes of the Emperor. 

Paris, some years ago, honored Alphonse 
de Neuville, the brilliant military painter, 
who died in 1885, with a statue — a tribute 
resulting more from patriotism, perhaps, than 



TiLrenne 12 1 

from a pure appreciation of his art, meritori- 
ous as that was. Both as an illustrator and 
painter, De Neuville won high rank, and sev- 
eral of his works are in public galleries in 
France, two being in the Luxembourg, while 
some good examples of his talent are owned 
by American collectors. One of the few 
pictures by De Neuville which does not illus- 
trate the Franco-Prussian conflict, is his *' De- 
fence of Rorke's Drift," a scene from the 
Zulu war. 

CONDfi 

*' I know nothing more noble than the despatches of 
Conde to the court, announcing his different victories. 
He speaks little of himself and much of others. In this 
respect Turenne resembles Conde." — Cousin. 

An instance of the great Conde s modesty 
is mentioned by Madame de Sevigne, in her 
letters. It was after the death of Turenne, 
when the king had ordered Conde to take the 
place of his former rival. Although in decay- 



122 The Great Mastej's of War-fare 

ing health, the prmce obeyed the command, 
but finding on his arrival that the army of 
Alsace was disorganized and that Turenne's 
plan of campaign had perished with him, he 
exclaimed, *' How much I wish I could have 
conversed only two hours with the ghost of 
Monsieur de Turenne, so as to be able to 
follow the scope of his ideas." 

This was Conde's last campaign, as Se- 
neffe, fought the year before, was his last 
great battle. Mahon says : 

''In 1674, Conde commanded once more 
upon the Flemish frontier. He encamped 
upon the heights of Pieton, two leagues from 
Charleroi, with an army of forty-five thousand 
men. When joined to the Spaniards, the 
Prince of Orange had nearly sixty thousand. 
He went to reconnoitre the position taken by 
Conde, and thinking it unassailable, he re- 
solved to move toward Le Quesnoy. To 
accomplish this object, he marched from 
Seneffe on the i ith of August, at the earliest 



Conde 123 

dawn of day, leaving, by this movement, his 
flank exposed to the French army. The con- 
queror of Rocroi was not the man to leave 
such a fault unpunished. ' We have only to 
attack them to beat them,' cried he, laughing. 
Accordingly, dividing his cavalry into three 
squadrons, and placing himself at the head 
of the first, he fell upon the vanguard of the 
enemy with a tremendous shock, and with 
the most complete success. The vanguard, 
beset on all sides, sought refuge in the centre 
of their army, which had taken up its posi- 
tion on a hill close to Seneffe, defended by 
orchards and hedges, as well as by the de- 
clivity of the ground. Two attacks on the 
part of the French failed before such obsta- 
cles. More and more inflamed, Conde 
ordered M. de Fourille, one of his generals, 
to make a third attack. ' Monseigneur,' 
said this officer, ' I will go everywhere your 
Highness commands ; but I must represent 
to you that the position of the enemy is such 



124 T^^^^ Great Masters of Warfare 

that it cannot be forced without great blood- 
shed.' 'I well see,' replied the prince, 
fiercely, 'that you like better to reason than 
to fight ; but it is obedience that I ask of you, 
and not advice.' The brave Fourille, stung 
to the quick by this unjust reproach, added 
not another word, but marched head foremost 
toward the enemy, as if to wash out this 
stain with his own blood. He did, indeed, 
receive soon after a mortal wound. A crowd 
of officers and soldiers fell around him. 
However, by dint of valor and sacrifice of 
life, the troops reached the summit of the 
hill, and Monsieur le Prince entered victori- 
ously the formidable position of the enemy. 

" The enemy had, however, retreated in 
good order to the village of Faith. There 
the Prince of Orange called all his troops to- 
gether, and ranged them in order of battle, 
in a position still stronger than the last, de- 
fended by gardens, hedges, ditches, and 
marshes. Conde might and ought to have 



Conde 1 2 5 

been contented with his first triumphs ; a 
new one could only be achieved by making 
immense sacrifices. Without allowing him- 
self to be discouraged by these considerations, 
he gave the signal for attack, and the French 
charged with the same vigor as though they 
had not yet fought. Several times they suc- 
ceeded in breaking through the enemy ; sev- 
eral times they were themselves repulsed. 
As fast as one battalion gave way, another 
took its place ; blood flowed on every side ; 
every one did his duty, with the exception 
of two battalions of Swiss, which, scared at 
the slaughter, refused to proceed any farther. 
The chiefs of the opposite army gave a like 
example of the most brilliant valor. The 
Prince of Orange remained calm and serene 
during six hours in the midst of the fight; 
he had several horses killed under him, and 
was also several times on the point of being 
taken. On the other hand, the Prince of 
Conde had two horses killed under him ; and 



126 The Great Masters of Warfare 

on the second of these occasions was flung 
with great violence into a fosse. His son, 
the Duke d'Enghien, who fought at his side, 
threw himself before him, and assisted him 
in rising, bruised and bleeding, from his fall. 
He himself was wounded while in the dis- 
charge of this sacred duty, and in saving the 
life of a father who passionately loved him. 

" Night, however, came ; but produced no 
pause. The conflict continued by moonlight. 
By eleven o'clock, however, the moon her- 
self had disappeared, and darkness separated 
the combatants. At that time the enemy 
were still in possession of the post they had 
occupied, but the ground was strewn with 
twenty-seven thousand corpses ! Conde, not- 
withstanding his weakness of health, had 
been seventeen hours on horseback. While 
lying upon a cloak, at the corner of a hedge, 
and in the rnidst of dead and dying, he 
gave his orders for recommencing the con- 
flict at the break of day. But the soldiers 



Conde 127 

on both sides were equally discouraged by 
their immense losses. The enemy com- 
menced a retreat before sunrise. On the 
other hand the greater part of the French 
divisions dispersed at the sound of this 
retreat ; and thus it may be said that both 
armies fled at the same time. Conde here- 
upon only thought of rallying and recall- 
ing his troops. Toward nine o'clock in the 
morning he reentered his camp at Pieton, ' I 
met him,' says Gourville, 'a league from 
the camp, returning in his open carriage. 
He could hardly speak from exhaustion ; but 
yet he did not omit telling me that if the 
Swiss would have pushed on, he should have 
succeeded in defeating the whole army of the 
enemy.' 

" Such was the battle of Seneffe of which 
each party claimed the victory ; for which 
the 'Te Deum ' was chanted at Brussels and 
Madrid, no less than at Paris. It was no 
doubt very glorious for William of Nassau, 



128 The Great Masters of Warfare 

who had scarcely attained his twenty-fourth 
year, to have balanced even for a moment 
the former renown of Monsieur le Prince : and 
allowing for the disproportion between Conde 
and Fuentes, it might be said that the Prince 
of Orange did nearly as much at Seneffe 
against Conde as Conde had himself done in 
his youth at Rocroi. Conde generously took 
pleasure in doing full justice to his adversary, 
saying that the Prince of Orange had every- 
where behaved himself like an experienced 
captain ; but that he had exposed his own 
person too much. The French, however, 
could display as warrants and proofs of their 
victory at Seneffe a hundred standards, and 
nearly five thousand prisoners." 

Upon the return of Conde after Seneffe, 
he was received at Versailles by Louis, who 
did him the honor to await him on the 
grand staircase of the palace. Conde, who 
suffered from gout, apologized to the king 
for his slowness, whereupon Louis m.ade the 



Louis Xiy. and the Grand Conde. 

From painting by Jean Louis Gerome. 



Conde 129 

famous answer : " Do not hurry, my cousin. 
It is hard to walk quickly when a man is as 
loaded with laurels as you are." 

This historic episode has been treated by 
Gerome in a picture which was owned by 
W. H. Vanderbilt, and which we reproduce. 
At the right hand of Louis stands the 
dauphin, then a boy of about thirteen, and 
behind him appears Cardinal Bossuet. 



MARLBOROUGH 

"Though in your life ten thousand summers roll, 
And though you compass earth from pole to pole, 
Where'er men talk of war and martial fame 
They'll mention Marlborough's and Caesar's name." 

— Gay. 

The sanguinary battle of Malplaquet was 
fought on September 11, 1709, and ended in 
a dearly bought victory for England and her 
alHes. About ninety thousand men were 
engaged on each side, the two armies being 



130 The Great Masters of Warfare 

as nearly as possible equal in point of military 
strength. 

Alison says : " In truth, the battle of Mal- 
plaquet was a desperate duel between France 
and England, in which the whole strength of 
each nation was put forth, and the successful 
result was rather owing to the superior 
talent of the EngUsh general, and the uncon- 
querable resolution he had communicated to 
his followers, than to any superiority either 
of military skill or national resources enjoyed 
by the victorious party. Nothing had occurred 
like it since Agincour, nothing occurred 
like it again till Waterloo. Blenheim itself 
was not nearly so hard fought. The allies 
lost, killed in the infantry alone, 5,544, 
wounded and missing, 12,706 — in all, 18,250 
— of whom 286 were officers killed, and 762 
wounded. Including the casualties in the 
cavalry and artillery, their total loss was not 
less than twenty thousand men, or nearly a 
fifth of the number engaged. 



MarlborougJi 1 3 1 

"The French loss, though they were worsted 
in the fight, was less considerable : it did not 
exceed fourteen thousand men — an unusual 
circumstance with a beaten army, but easily 
accounted for, if the formidable nature of the 
intrenchments which the aUies had to storm 
in the first part of the action is taken into 
consideration. 

" Villars wrote with truth to the French king 
after the battle, in the words of Pyrrhus, ' If 
God vouchsafes to our enemies another such 
battle, your Majesty may consider your 
enemies as destroyed.' " 

Truly <*a very murdering battle," as Marl- 
borough himself called it. 

The opposing generals were Marlborough 
and Prince Eugene against Marshals Villars 
and Boufflers, while on the French side rode 
the son of James II. (the "Old Pretender," 
who was generally known as the Chevalier de 
St. George), and no less than twelve nobles 
who afterward became marshals of France. 



132 The Great Masters of Warfare 

The young Maurice de Saxe, later the hero 
of Fontenoy, was also present at Malplaquet 
under Marlborough, and likewise Leopold of 
Dessau. Prince Eugene was wounded on the 
head, Villars in the knee (so badly that he 
had to be carried from the field), and the 
Pretender also received a wound. 

Thackeray makes his " Esmond " say : 
" Every village and family in England was 
deploring the death of beloved sons and 
fathers. We dared not speak to each other, 
even at table, of Malplaquet, so frightful were 
the gaps left in our army by the cannon of 
that bloody action. 'Tvvas heartrending for 
an officer who had a heart to look down his 
line on a parade-day afterward, and miss 
hundreds of faces of comrades — humble or 
of high rank — that had gathered but yester- 
day full of courage and cheerfulness round 
the torn and blackened flags. Where were 
our friends } As the great duke reviewed 
us, riding along our lines with his fine suite 



Marlborough at Malplaquet. 

From painting by R. Caton Woodville. 



Alai'Ibo rough 133 

of prancing aides-de-camp and generals, stop- 
ping here and there to thank an officer with 
those eager smiles and bows of which his 
Grace was always lavish, scarce a huzzah 
could be got for him, though Cadogan, with 
an oath, rode up and cried — ' D — n you, 
why don't you cheer ? ' But the men had no 
heart for that ; not one of them but was 
thinking, 'Where's my comrade? — where's 
my brother that fought by me, or my dear 
captain that led me yesterday ? ' 'Twas the 
most gloomy pageant I ever looked on, and 
the ' Te Deum ' sung by our chaplains the 
most woful and dreary satire." 

At Malplaquet, Marlborough charged the 
Garde du Corps at the head of a body of 
English horse and drove them from the field. 
This is the subject of Caton Woodville's 
picture, which we reproduce. 

Richard Caton Woodville, although born in 
London in 1856, is the son of an American 
artist of the same name, who was a native of 



134 Tlie Great Masters of Warfare 

Baltimore. The younger Woodville sent his 
first picture to the Royal Academy in 1879, 
its subject being <' Before Leuthen." He 
painted the '* Marriage of Princess Beatrice " 
for Queen Victoria, and has produced a 
number of battle pictures, among them being 
*' Blenheim," '' Candahar," " Maiwand — Sav- 
ing the Guns " (belonging to the Walker Art 
Gallery, Liverpool), "The Guards at Tel-el- 
Kebir," *'The Charge of the Light Brigade," 
and " The Death of General Sir Herbert 
Stewart." As a war-artist for the Illus- 
trated London News Woodville has gained 
a wide and well-deserved reputation. 

PRINCE EUGENE 

" He takes cities like snuff." — Pope. 

Malplaquet was fought on the twelfth 
anniversary of the battle of Zenta, in Hun- 
gary, where Prince Eugene gave the Turks 
a thorough beating in 1697. 



Prince Eugene 135 

A lively account of the affair of Zenta, 
supposed to be from the famous general's 
own pen, appears in his ** Memoirs " (pub- 
lished in London in 18 11). It is well worth 
reading, and is here quoted, but truth com- 
pels us to mention that these '^ Memoirs " 
cannot be considered authentic, nor is the 
statement that Eugene fought at Zenta in 
direct disobedience of the emperor's orders 
accepted by the latest authorities. It fol- 
lows, therefore, that the account of what 
took place between Leopold and Prince 
Eugene upon the latter's return to Vienna 
after the battle also falls to the ground. 

But the story of the conflict itself remains. 

*'The Turks are never in a hurry. The 
Grand Signior himself, Kara Mustapha, did 
me the honor to arrive at Sophia with his 
army in the month of July. I marshalled 
mine at Verismarton ; I recalled to me Vaude- 
mont and Rabutin, for it appeared that the 
Grand Signior intended to possess himself of 



136 The Great Masters of Warfare 

Titul, in order to carry on the siege of Peter- 
waradin. I encamped on the 26th August, 
at Zenta. General Nehm was attacked. I 
arrived too late to his assistance, at the head 
of seven squadrons ; I do not censure him, 
for he could not hold out any longer, over- 
powered by numbers. Thank Heaven, I have 
never complained of any one, nor have I ever 
thrown upon another the odium of a fault 
or a misfortune ! Titul was burned. The 
Grand Vizier remained on this side of the 
Danube, which the Grand Siguier had to 
cross to go and besiege Peterwaradin ; but, 
after coasting it along, and concealing my 
intentions by my skirmishes with the spahis, 
I anticipated him, and passed the bridge be- 
fore him. It was thus I saved Peterwaradin. 
This march, which I confess was a brilliant 
one, was worth a battle gained. I soon 
intrenched myself, and they did not venture 
to attack me. Among some prisoners which 
we took, there happened to be a pacha, whom 



Prince Eugene 137 

I interrogated, but in vain, respecting the 
designs of Kara Mustapha, but four hussars, 
with drawn swords, ready to hew him to 
pieces, soon made him confess that it was in- 
tended to approach Segedin : that afterward 
the Grand Signior changing his opinion, he 
had already begun to pass the Teisse, and 
that a great part of the army, under the 
orders of the Grand Vizier, was already 
strongly intrenched near Zenta. I was 
marching to attack him when a cursed cou- 
rier arrived, and brought me a letter from the 
emperor, ordering me not to give battle 
under any circumstances whatever. 

" I was already too far advanced. By 
stopping, I should have sacrificed a part of 
my troops and my honor. I put the letter 
into my pocket, and, at the head of six regi- 
ments of dragoons, I approached near enough 
to the Turks to perceive that they were all 
preparing to pass the Teisse. I returned to 
my army with an air of satisfaction, which 



138 The Great Masters of Warfare 

was, they told me, a good presage to the 
soldiers. I began the battle by rushing on 
two thousand spahis, whom I forced to fall 
back within the intrenchments. There were 
a hundred pieces of cannon, which incom- 
moded me greatly. I bade Rabutin advance 
his left wing, inclining a little to the right ; 
and Stahremberg, who commanded the right, 
to make the same motion on the left, thus to 
embrace, by a semicircle, the whole intrench- 
ment : a thing which I would not have dared 
to do before Catinat, who would have inter- 
rupted me in so tardy and somewhat com- 
plicated a movement. But the Turks left me 
alone. They attacked my left wing too late ; 
however, it would have turned out but badly, 
without four battalions of the second line, 
and the artillery, which I sent very oppor- 
tunely to disperse their cavalry and to make 
a breach in the intrenchments. It was six 
o'clock in the evening : we commenced the 
assault. The Turks, attacked at all points, 



Prince Eugene at the Battle of Zenta. 

From painting by Eduard von Engerth. 



Prince Eugene 139 

threw themselves in crowds on the bridge, 
which we blocked up so that they were forced 
to throw themselves in the Teisse, where all 
those that could not swim were massacred. 
On all sides were heard the cries of Aman ! 
Aman ! which signifies quarter. The slaugh- 
ter continued till ten o'clock : I could not 
make more than four thousand prisoners ; 
for twenty thousand men remained in the 
field, and ten thousand were drowned. I did 
not lose a thousand men. The first runa- 
ways, at the commencement of the battle, 
succeeded in joining the corps which re- 
mained on the other side of the river. This 
was on the i ith of September. I sent Vaude- 
mont to carry the intelligence to Vienna. 
I proceeded to capture two phalanxes and 
some castles in Bosnia, to burn Seraglio, and 
returned to my winter quarters in Hungary. 

" I set off for Vienna, where I expected to 
be received a hundred times better than I 
had ever been yet. Leopold received me in 



140 TJie Great Masters of Warfai^e 

the coldest manner ; more austere than ever, 
he heard me without replying by a single 
word. I saw immediately that I had been 
circumvented during my absence ; and that 
while I was getting rid of the Turks, the 
good Christians at Vienna were endeavoring 
to get rid of me. I retired indignantly from 
the audience. I was still more indignant, 
when Schlick came to me, full of alarm, to 
demand my sword. I put it into his trem- 
bling hand, with a look of the most profound 
disdain, which alarmed him still more. It 
has been asserted that I said, ' There it is, 
still smoking with the blood of his enemies ; 
I consent never to take it again unless to be 
useful in the service of his Majesty.' The 
one half of this sentence would have been a 
gasconade, and the other half a base resigna- 
tion. My rage was mute. I was put under 
an arrest in my own house. I now learned 
that Gaspard Kinsky and some others would 
have had me brought to trial for disobedi- 



Prince Eugene 14 1 

ence, and for having performed a bold and 
hazardous action ; that I should be tried 
before a council of war, and that my head 
should pay forfeit. The rumor of this soon 
spread through the capital. The people 
assembled round my house, and deputies 
from the citizens offered to guard me, and 
to prevent me from being removed, in case 
it was attempted to carry me to my examina- 
tion, as had been talked of. I entreated 
them not to swerve from their duty of fidel- 
ity and tranquillity. I thanked them for 
their zeal ; and I was so much touched that 
I wept. The city of Vienna is small, and 
this assembly of the people was known at 
court a few minutes afterward. Whether 
from fear or repentance, the emperor sent 
my sword back, and begged of me to resume 
the command of his array in Hungary. I 
returned in reply that I would, 'on con- 
sideration of having plenary powers, and 
being no more exposed to the malice of 



142 TJic Great Masters of Warfare 

his generals and ministers.' The poor em- 
peror did not dare give me this full au- 
thority publicly ; but he did it secretly, in 
a note signed by himself, and I was con- 
tented with it." 

Engerth's spirited picture of the close of 
the action fitly accompanies this. In the 
foreground we see some Turkish prisoners, 
with other sons of Islam lying dead at the 
feet of the conquering Eugene, while on the 
right a despatch bearer dashes off to Vienna 
with the joyful news of the victory. 

The Ritter Eduard Von Engerth died in 
1 897, aged about eighty years, being at that 
time the director of the Belvidere Gallery in 
Vienna. Born in Pless (Silesia), he studied 
at the Academy of Vienna, and became a 
noted painter of portraits and of historical 
pieces. His paintings include " Haman and 
Esther," '^Coronation of Rudolf I.," "Sei- 
zure of King Manfred's Family," " Corona- 
tion of Francis Joseph as King of Hungary," 



Prince Eugene 143 

"Death of Eurydice," and "Marriage of 
Figaro." 

DESSAU 

" His reforms in the practical discipline of troops were 
such that he is often called the founder of the modern 
system of military tactics." — Herbert Tuttle. 

The " Old Dessauer," one of Frederick 
the Great's best marshals, is credited with 
the invention of the iron ramrod and of the 
equal step, among other things of great use 
in their day to the world of war. He was, 
in fact, a sort of sublimated drill-sergeant, 
and made the famous Prussian infantry of 
his time what they were. 

Carlyle's story of Leopold's courtship runs 
thus : 

"As to the Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, 
rugged man, whose very face is the color of 
gunpowder, he also knows French, and can 
even write in it, if he likes, — having duly 
had a Tutor of that nation, and strange ad- 



144 T^'-^ Girat Masters of Warfare 

ventures with him on the grand tour and 
elsewhere, — but does not much practise 
writing, when it can be helped. His chil- 
dren, I have heard, he expressly did not 
teach to read or write, seeing no benefit in 
that effeminate art, but left them to pick it 
up as they could. His Princess, all rightly 
ennobled now, — whom he would not but 
marry, though sent on the grand tour to 
avoid it, — was the daughter of one Fos, an 
Apothecary at Dessau ; and is still a beau- 
tiful and prudent kind of woman, who seems 
to suit him well enough, no worse than if 
she had been born a Princess. Much talk 
has been of her, in princely and other circles ; 
nor is his marriage the only strange thing 
Leopold has done. He is a man to keep the 
world's tongue wagging, not too musically 
always ; though himself of very unvocal 
nature. Perhaps the biggest mass of inar- 
ticulate human vitality, certainly one of the 
biggest then going about in the world. A 



Dessau 145 

man of vast dumb faculty ; dumb, but fertile, 
deep ; no end of ingenuities in the rough 
head of him : — as much mother-wit there, I 
often guess, as could be found in whole talk- 
ing parliaments, spouting themselves away in 
vocables and eloquent wind ! 

"A man of dreadful impetuosity withal. 
Set upon his will as the one law of Nature ; 
storming forward with incontrollable violence : 
a very whirlwind of a man. He was left a 
minor ; his Mother guardian. Nothing could 
prevent him from marrying this Fos, the 
Apothecary's Daughter ; no tears nor contri- 
vances of his Mother, whom he much loved, 
and who took skilful measures. Fourteen 
months of travel in Italy; grand tour, with 
eligible French Tutor, — whom he once drew 
sword upon, getting some rebuke from him 
one night in Venice, and would have killed, 
had not the man been nimble, at once dexter- 
ous and sublime : — it availed not. The first 
thing he did on reentering Dessau, with his 



146 The Great Masters of Warfare 

Tutor, was to call at Apothecary Fos's, and 
see the charming Mamsell ; to go and see 
his Mother was the second thing. Not even 
his grand passion for war could eradicate 
Fos : he went to Dutch William's wars ; the 
wise mother still counselling, who was own 
aunt to Dutch William, and liked the scheme. 
He besieged Namur ; fought and besieged 
up and down, — with insatiable appetite for 
fighting and sieging; with great honor, too, 
and ambitions awakening in him ; — campaign 
after campaign : but along with the flamy, 
thundery, ideal bride, figuratively called Bel- 
lona, there was always a soft, real one, Mam- 
sell Fos of Dessau, to whom he continued 
constant. The Government of his Domin- 
ions he left cheerfully to his Mother, even 
when he came of age : ' I am for learning 
war, as the one right trade ; do with all 
things as you please, Mamma, — only not 
with Mamsell, not with her ! ' 

"Readers may figure this scene too, and 



The Courtship of Leopold of Dessau. 

From painting by Herman Prell. 



Dessau 1 47 

shudder over it. Some rather handsome 
male Cousin of Mamsell, Medical Graduate or 
whatever he was, had appeared in Dessau : — 
* Seems to admire Mamsell much ; of course, 
in a Platonic way,' said rumor. — ' He .? Ad- 
mire } ' thinks Leopold ; — thinks a good 
deal of it, not in a philosophic mood. As he 
was one day passing Fos's, Mamsell and 
Medical Graduate are visible, standing to- 
gether at the window inside. Pleasantly 
looking out upon Nature, — of course quite 
casually, say some Histories with a sneer. 
In fact, it seems possible this Medical Gradu- 
ate may have been set to act shoeing-horn, 
but he had better not. Leopold storms into 
the house, ' Draw, scandalous canaille, and 
defend yourself ! ' — And in this, or some 
such way, a confident tradition says, he killed 
the poor Medical Graduate there and then. 
One tries always to hope not, but Varnhagen 
is positive, though the other Histories say 
nothing of it. God knows. The man was a 



148 The Great Masters of Warfare 

Prince ; no Reichshofrath, Speyer-Wetzlar 
Kammer, or other Supreme Court, would 
much trouble itself, except with formal shak- 
ings of the wig, about such a peccadillo. In 
fine, it was better for Leopold to marry the 
Miss Fos ; which he actually did (1698, in 
his twenty-second year), * with the left hand,' 
— and then with the right and both hands; 
having got her properly ennobled before long, 
by his splendid military services. She made, 
as we have hinted, an excellent Wife to him, 
for the fifty or sixty ensuing years. . . . Leo- 
pold's health is probably suffering ; but his 
heart and spirits still more. Poor old man, 
he has just lost — the other week, ^ 5th 
February ' last — his poor old Wife, at Des- 
sau ; and is broken down with grief. The 
soft, silk lining of his hard Existence, in all 
parts of it, is torn away. Apothecary Fos's 
Daughter, Reich's Princess, Princess of Des- 
sau, called by whatever name, she had been 
the truest of Wives ; ' used to attend him in 



Dessau 149 

all his Campaigns, for above fifty years back.' 
' Gone, now, forever gone ! ' — Old Leopold 
had wells of strange sorrow in the rugged 
heart of him, — sorrow, and still better things, 
— which he does not wear on his sleeve." 

One of Germany's ablest artists is Her- 
mann Prell, who, born in Leipsic in 1854^ 
studied under Grosse and Gussow, and in 
time was appointed a professor of the Dres- 
den Academy. His " Judas Iscariot " is in the 
gallery at Dresden, and he has also painted a 
" Rest on the Flight into Egypt," "The Last 
Chase," and a portrait of William H. As a 
fresco painter, Prell has won much fame, his 
wall-paintings being found in public buildings 
in the cities of Dantzig, Worms, Breslau, and 
Hildesheim. His fresco of the " Battle of 
Gods and Titans " is to be seen at the Alber- 
tinum in Dresden. 



150 TJic Great Masters of Warfare 



CHARLES XII. 

*' A frame of adamant, a soul of fire, 
No dangers fright him, and no labors tire." 

— Dr. Johnson. 

His Majesty Oscar II., the poet-king of 
Sweden and Norway, on the inauguration at 
Stockhohii of a statue of Charles XII. (sev- 
eral years before Oscar's accession to the 
throne), delivered an address which has since 
been published in English. The statue was 
unveiled on the one hundred and fiftieth anni- 
versary of the death of the ''Alexander of 
the North." In his address, Duke Oscar 
speaks of the brave conduct of the young 
king (then about fifteen), at the burning of 
the Royal Palace at Stockholm in 1697, and 
proceeds to say : 

'' It was on this occasion that Charles, for 
the first time, gave proofs of the possession 
of that presence of mind and energy which 



The Burning of the Palace at Stockholm 
in i6gy. 

From painting by Johan Fredrik Hockert. 



Charles XII . 151 

subsequently rarely forsook him. His ac- 
tivity and courage increased his popularity ; 
and when, reluctantly, he was compelled to 
leave the smoking ruins of his father's palace, 
— the threshold of which he was never again 
to cross, — in the applauding voices of the 
populace might have been heard a prophetic 
intimation of those events too soon to be 
accomphshed, and destined so greatly to 
influence his future fate. . . . 

"■ Never was a man more thoroughly suited 
than Charles XIL to inspire Swedish troops 
with courage, or to lead them to victory. 
Noble, just, and self-denying, and brave as a 
Hon, he seemed to them almost a supernat- 
ural being. Every victory he won made his 
soldiers more confident in him ; every danger 
he shared with them spurred them on to in- 
creased exertion. His enemies lost faith in 
their own good fortune, and the bow had 
to be very strongly bent before it finally 
snapped. The feelings that overwhelmed 



152 The Great Masters of Warfare 

the Swedish soldier after the battle of Pul- 
towa were probably more of wonder that 
their king could have been conquered than 
of sorrow at the calamitous defeat. 

" It would occupy much time to recount the 
many exploits in which Charles was himself 
the foremost ; but to enumerate them is un- 
necessary, the remembrance of them being 
deeply graven in the heart of every Swedish 
soldier. None can without emotion picture 
the hero pressing alone through the gates of 
Cracow — which opened to the stroke of his 
riding-whip as if to an enchanter's wand — or 
storming the virgin ramparts of Lemberg at 
the head of a few hundred dragoons. Who 
has not read with wonder and excitement how, 
mounted on horseback, he forded or swam 
over rapid rivers, waded through bogs and 
morasses, or, almost alone, daringly ventured 
into the midst of the enemy's outposts ; heed- 
less alike of flying bullets, wintry chills, and 
the rough paths of the desert } Who has 



Charles XII . 153 

not admired the example of fearless courage 
he gave to his soldiers when, during the siege 
of Thorn, he would not allow earthworks to 
be raised around his own exposed headquar- 
ters, because all could not enjoy the same 
advantage ; or when, from the flames of his 
burning house at Bender, he rushed amongst 
the janissaries crowding the courtyard, that, 
at least, he might die a soldier's death ; or 
when, at Stralsund, he heard, without turning 
his head, a shell explode close by the table 
at which he was issuing his orders ? Who 
must not respect the commander who always 
shared his soldiers' hardships ; and, that he 
might not suffer less than the meanest in his 
army, carefully avoided taking up his head- 
quarters in the larger towns, where he could 
have enjoyed much needed rest and greater 
comfort ? And, finally, who that knows the 
character of Swedes can wonder at the re- 
spect and love, bordering on idolatry, with 
which he was regarded by his army ? 



154 ^^^^ Great Masters of Warfare 

" He was the last of the Northern Vikings, 
and a halo surrounds his memory similar to 
that which gleams on the hero of ancient 
legend. To the adventures of both, Svea's 
sons even at this day listen with enthusiasm 
and pride." 

We will append to the king's tribute to 
Charles, the spirited lines written by the 
Swedish poet Tegner, some of whose beauti- 
ful verse has been translated by Longfellow : 

" King Charles, the conquering boy, 
Stood up in dust and smoke ; 
He shook his sword for joy, 
And through the battle broke. 
How Swedish iron bites 
We will make trial new ; 
Stand back, you Muscovites : 
Forward ! my own true blue ! 

*' Not ten to one appal 
The angry Vasa's son ; 
Those fled who did not fall : 
So was his course begun. 



Charles XI I. 155 

He drove three kings asunder, 
Who leagued against him stood, 
And Europe saw with wonder 
A beardless Thunder-god." 

A life which extended over only about 
forty years was the lot of the Swedish artist, 
Johan Fredrik Hockert, who died in 1866. 
He passed some time painting in Paris, where 
he obtained a medal in 1855, and, being pat- 
ronized by the royal family of Sweden, was 
made professor of the Academy of Fine Arts 
at Stockholm. Two of his pictures of Lap- 
land peasant life are in the museum of that 
city. His other works include "Gustavus 
Vasa Rescued from the Danes," " Queen 
Christina Ordering the Execution of Monal- 
deschi," and "Bellman in Sergei's Studio." 



156 The Great Mastei's of Warfare 



MARSHAL SAXE 

" I have seen the hero of France, this Saxon, this Tu- 
renne of the age of Louis XV. I have derived instruction 
from his conversation, not in the French language, but in 
the art of war. This marshal might be the professor of 
all the generals of Europe." — Frederick the Great. 

FoNTENOY — fought in 1745 against the 
Duke of Cumberland — was Marshal Saxe's 
most famous victory. Hayward gives this 
account of it : "The battle was fought on the 
nth of May (New Style), and a full official 
account of it is contained in a despatch from 
the marshal himself, dated Camp before 
Tournay, May 13th, to the minister of war. 
From this it appears that all fell out very 
nearly as he had anticipated ; that the victory 
was the result of a preconceived plan ; that 
he never despaired of the result ; and that all 
the decisive movements were in pursuance of 
his personal orders adapted to the emergency. 



Marshal Saxe 157 

The notion that he adopted as a happy hit 
the alleged suggestion of Richelieu to attack 
like foragers or sportsmen — that is, without 
regard to order — is preposterous. His dis- 
tinct directions to the troops preparatory to 
the grand effort were to charge together and 
charge home : 

"* Seeing our infantry (thus runs the des- 
patch) the household (Maison du Roi), the 
carabineers, and a great part of the cavalry, 
much discomfited by the different charges 
they had made uselessly against the English 
infantry, I went to look for the carabineers, 
and told them they must make a last effort, 
that the preceding charges had not succeeded 
because they had advanced with too much 
vivacity, and had not given time to the dif- 
erent reserves that I had on my left to reach 
this closely formed battalion, which gave the 
English time to repulse one attack after the 
other ; and that it was necessary to make 
the effort at the same time. Monseigneur 



158 TJie Great Masters of Warfare 

the dauphin asked my permission to charge 
at the head of the household. Judge, sir, of 
the uneasiness such a presence may occasion 
a general. In short, everything succeeded 
beyond our hopes.' 

**The most vivid picture of the charge is 
given by Espagnac : 

" * Marshal Saxe had ordered that the cav- 
alry should touch the English with the breasts 
of their horses ; he was well obeyed. The 
officers of the chamber charged pell-mell with 
the guards and the mousquetaires ; the king's 
pages were there sword in hand ; there was 
so exact an equality of time and courage, so 
unanimous an impression of the checks they 
had received, — so perfect a concert, — the 
cavalry sabre in hand, the infantry with bay- 
onets fixed, — that the English column was 
shattered to pieces and disappeared.' . . . 

" Espagnac also states that the Count de 
Loewendal, who held an important command, 
rode up to Saxe at the critical moment, and. 



Marshal Saxe 159 

comprehending the plan and situation at a 
glance, exclaimed: 'This is a grand day for 
the king, marshal ; those fellows there cannot 
escape him.' The marshal probably never 
calculated on the firmness and dogged intre- 
pidity with which the English, denuded of 
support by the backwardness of the Aus- 
trians and Dutch, pushed forward to a posi- 
tion not much unlike that of the light cavalry 
brigade at Balaklava ; and he had just ground 
for apprehension lest a panic should seize 
the officers or courtiers about the king:: 
whom, for this reason, he was most anxious 
to remove. According to Loss, the Saxon 
minister, who had his information fresh from 
the fountainhead, the Due de Noailles, com- 
mander-in-chief in the campaigns of 1 743 and 
1744, elicited a sharp expression of impa- 
tience from Saxe by speaking of the battle as 
lost ; and the Due de Biron's interference 
obviously arose from a misunderstanding of 
the plan. We know, at all events, that a 



i6o The Great Masters of Warfare 

change in the position of some troops led to 
a murmured exclamation amongst the royal 
suite: 'The marshal is ill; his health is fail- 
ing; his brain is getting confused.' Louis 
went straight to him, and in a loud, clear 
voice addressed him thus : ' Marshal, when 
I confided to you the command of my army, 
I meant that every one should obey you ; I 
will be the first to set the example.' 

'' The marshal, speaking of the king, says 
in his despatch : 

" ' He did not disturb my operations by 
any order opposed to mine, which is what is 
most to be feared from the presence of a 
monarch surrounded by a court, which often 
sees things differently from what they are. 
In short, the king was present during the 
whole affair and never wished to retire, al- 
though many opinions were for that course 
during the whole of the action.' 

" To this may be added the conclusive 
testimony of the king's private letter to 



Marshal Saxe i6i 

Cardinal Tencin, a copy of which was sent 
to Dresden by Foss : 

" ' We owe the victory we have just gained 
to the good dispositions of the Marshal de 
Saxe. He has taught us valuable lessons, if 
we are willing to profit by them, but I fear 
he will not be our teacher long, if he remains 
in his present state. It would be an irrepar- 
able loss for us, which I should sustain with 
regret, above all because I should not be able 
to reward the great services he has done us.' 

" He was blamed for not turning the defeat 
into a rout, and it appears from the despatch 
already quoted, that, seeing the English cav- 
alry advancing to support their infantry, he 
halted his troops a hundred paces from his 
battle-ground. His very words are : * As 
we had enough of it, I thought only of re- 
storing order amongst the troops engaged in 
the charge.' " 

After the victories of Raucourt in 1746 
and Laufeld in 1747, Saxe was also blamed 



1 62 The Great Masters of Warfare 

for not improving these successes, and prob- 
ably with justice, as the Marquis de Valfons, 
one of Saxe's own staff, says : "■ The mar- 
shal was like all generals, too great in time 
of war to desire peace and secure it by too 
decisive successes." The Duke of Marl- 
borough fell under the same suspicion ; the 
temptation was certainly great. Saxe's own 
words were, ^'We are like cloaks — one 
thinks of us only when it rains." 

Vernet's " Fontenoy " shows Louis XV. on 
a white horse, accompanied by the dauphin, 
facing Marshal Saxe, who is on foot and 
points with his hat to the trophies of victory 
in the hands of his soldiers. The bare- 
headed man on horseback behind Saxe is 
the Due de Richelieu. Some Scotch pris- 
oners and wounded men fill the left fore- 
ground, and on the right an old officer 
is seen embracing his son. 

The galleries of the palace of Versailles 
contain numerous battle-pieces by Horace 



The Battle of Fontenoy. 

From painting by Horace Vernet. 



Marshal Saxe 163 

Vernet (i 793-1 863), one of the most notice- 
able being the " Taking of the Smalah of 
Abd-el-Kader in 1843," which measures six- 
teen by seventy-one feet. The Louvre has 
his "Judith and Holofernes," and "Defence 
of the Barrier of Clichy." In addition to 
his many miUtary subjects, Vernet was the 
author of some good pictures of Arab life, 
such as "The Post in the Desert," and 
"The Arab at Prayer," and also painted 
"Raphael and Michael Angelo in the Vat- 
ican." 

FREDERICK THE GREAT 

" Napoleon did indeed, by immense expenditure of men 
and gunpowder, overrun Europe for a time : but Napo- 
leon never, by husbanding and wisely expending his men 
and gunpowder, defended a little Prussia against all 
Europe, year after year for seven years long, till Europe 
had enough, and gave up the enterprise as one it could 
not manage." — Carlyle. 

It was in 1760, during the fifth campaign 
of the Seven Years War, that the battle of 



164 The Great Masters of Warfai'e 

Torgau, a fortified town on the river Elbe, 
was contested. 

Lord Dover describes it thus : 

" The battle of Torgau, perhaps the blood- 
iest fought during the whole war, took place 
on the 3d of November. The evening be- 
fore, the king is said to have assembled his 
generals, and to have addressed them in the 
following terms : ' I have called you together, 
not to ask your advice, but to inform you 
that to-morrow I shall attack Marshal Daun. 
I am aware that he occupies a strong position ; 
but it is also one from which he cannot es- 
cape; and if I beat him, all his army must 
be either taken prisoners, or drowned in the 
Elbe. If, on the other hand, we are beaten, 
we must all perish ; and I shall be the first 
to meet death. This war is become tedious, 
and you must all find it so : we will, if we 
can, finish it to-morrow. Ziethen, I confide 
to you the right wing of the army. Your 
object must be, in marching straight to Tor- 



Frederick the Great 165 

gau, to cut off the retreat of the Austrians, 
when I shall have beaten them, and driven 
them from the heights of Siptitz.' At the 
same time, the King of Prussia delivered to 
the generals present a detailed account of 
the order of march and of battle, to be ob- 
served on the following day, written with his 
own hand. 

•^The Prussian army advanced on the morn- 
ing of the 3d, in three columns, through 
the forest of Torgau. Ziethen, as has been 
before mentioned, commanded the right 
wing ; while the king, at the head of the 
left, advanced to attack the Austrians on 
their right flank. In passing through the 
forest, the Prussians met the Austrian gen- 
eral, St. Ignon, at the head of his regiment 
of dragoons, who were all taken prisoners. 
Ziethen attacked the cavalry of Lacy ; while 
Frederick, at the head of ten battalions of 
grenadiers, commenced the combat with 
Daun. That general, aware of the advan- 



1 66 TJie Great Masters of Warfare 

tages of his position, had placed two hundred 
cannons on the slope of the hill ; the destruc- 
tive fire of which obliged the Prussians to 
retire with incredible loss. Of the ten bat- 
talions who were led upon this occasion to 
the charge, there only remained alive the 
next day two small battalions of three hun- 
dred men each. Fresh troops then came up, 
and made a fresh attack ; and succeeded, for 
the moment, in gaining possession of the 
height, and in repulsing the Austrian infan- 
try. But Daun did not suffer them long to 
enjoy this advantage; with his corps of re- 
serve and cuirassiers, he drove them back 
into the forest. The Prussian cavalry then 
commenced a prolonged contest, in which, 
though at times successful, they were eventu- 
ally worsted by numbers. 

" Frederick, who seemed determined, as he 
had announced, to conquer or die, redoubled 
his attacks, and ordered Ziethen to approach, 
and support him : but the latter was too much 



Frederick the Great 167 

occupied in a doubtful combat witn Lacy, to 
be of much service to his master. At four 
o'clock in the afternoon, the Prussians had 
not succeeded in gaining a foot of ground, 
though they had lost great numbers of men. 
The king and Daun were both wounded ; the 
former in the breast, the latter in the leg. 
Both armies were fatigued, and had exhausted 
their ammunition ; and nothing seemed to 
remain to the Prussians but a disastrous re- 
treat. Daun felt so certain of this result, 
that he actually despatched a letter to the 
empress queen, which contained these words : 
' The just arms of your Imperial Majesty have 
to-day gained a complete victory over the 
King of Prussia.' 

" At this moment, however, some of the 
Prussian soldiers, before the night finally 
closed in, discovered a sort of causeway be- 
tween two ponds, leading to the hill, which 
the Austrians had neglected to guard. Colo- 
nel Mollendorf, with part of the troops of 



1 68 Tlie Great Masters of Waff are 

Ziethen, passed it unobserved in the twilight ; 
while General Saldern followed him with the 
infantry. The height behind Siptitz was 
taken by assault, and Ziethen and the king 
met victorious on the field of battle. Lacy 
made some vain attempts to regain his posi- 
tion ; but the darkness of the night threw 
his soldiers into disorder, and prevented his 
offering any effectual resistance. 

"The two armies passed the night under 
arms, and very near to one another ; so much 
so, that many soldiers on both sides were 
taken, who missed their way, and fell among 
detachments of their enemies. A similar 
fate might even have befallen Frederick, for 
he relates himself that, in going to the village 
of Neiden, his escort heard the tramping of 
men and horses. On asking who they were, 
they received for answer, Austrians. The 
Prussians, upon this, fell upon them suddenly, 
and took them prisoners ; and they found out 
that they were a whole regiment of pandours, 



Repulsed at Torgau. 

From painting by Robert Warthmiiller. 



Frederick the Great 169 

with two cannons, who had lost their way. 
Going a Httle farther, they, in hke manner, 
stumbled upon a regiment of Austrian cara- 
bineers, whom they charged and put to flight. 

" The King of Prussia occupied part of the 
night in sitting by a fire with his soldiers, 
conversing with them. One of the grenadiers, 
upon this occasion, said familiarly to him, ' I 
suppose, Fritz, after this, you will give us 
good winter quarters.' ' Not till we have 
taken Dresden,' replied Frederick; 'when 
that is done, you shall have them to your 
heart's content.' The king afterward retired 
into a village church, where he had his wound 
dressed, received the accounts of the state of 
the army, and gave his orders for the morrow. 

" The loss of the Prussians in the battle of 
Torgau amounted to 10,500; of whom 3,900 
were killed, 5,100 wounded, and 1,500 taken 
prisoners. The Austrians lost 17,000, of 
whom 3,000 were killed, 6,000 wounded, and 
8,000 taken prisoners. Among the latter 



170 The Great Masters of Warfare 

were 24 generals, and 216 officers. Fifty 
cannons and thirty standards fell into the 
hands of the Prussians. The Austrians, as 
usual, claimed the victory ; but that they did 
so without the slightest reason is evident from 
the consequences of the battle." 

Robert Warthmuller, the painter of our 
picture of Frederick at Torgau, has in two 
other paintings depicted the king — one 
showing him overlooking the labor of some 
peasants who are digging potatoes, and the 
other portraying the old warrior beside the 
corpse of one of his field-marshals — Schwe- 
rin, often called the " Little Marlborough," 
who fell at Prague in 1757. At the Chicago 
World's Fair of 1893, Warthmiiller was repre- 
sented by a picture entitled " Evening." 



Washington 171 

WASHINGTON 

"Where may the wearied eye repose 

"When gazing on the Great ; 
Where neither guilty glory glows, 

Nor despicable state ? 
Yes — one — the first — the last — the best — 
The Cincinnatus of the West, 

Whom envy dared not hate. 
Bequeathed the name of Washington, 
To make men blush there was but one 1 " 

— Byron. 

The friendship of Washington and Lafay- 
ette was a memorable one. When they first 
met in 1777, the young Frenchman was but 
nineteen, while Washington numbered forty- 
five years. 

The historian Sparks thus describes the 
circumstances : 

'* General Washington passed two or three 
days in Philadelphia, holding conferences 
with committees and members of Congress. 
It was here that he had his first interview 
with the Marquis de Lafayette. . . . 



1/2 TJic Great Masters of Warfare 

" When Lafayette arrived in Philadelphia 
he put his letters into the hands of Mr. 
Lovell, chairman of the Committee of For- 
eign Affairs. He called the next day at the 
Hall of Congress, and Mr. Lovell came out 
to him and said that so many foreigners had 
offered themselves for employment, that 
Congress was embarrassed v^ith their appli- 
cations, and he was sorry to inform him 
there was very little hope of his success. 
Lafayette suspected his papers had not been 
read, and he immediately sat down and wrote 
a note to the president of Congress, in which 
he desired to be permitted to serve in the 
American army on two conditions ; first, 
that he should receive no pay ; secondly, 
that he should act as a volunteer. These 
terms were so different from those demanded 
by other foreigners, and presented so few 
obstacles on the ground of an interference 
with American officers, that they were at 
once accepted. His rank, zeal, perseverance. 



Washington's First Meeting with Lafayette. 

From painting by Annibale Gatti. 



Washifigton 1 7 3 

and disinterestedness overcame every objec- 
tion, and he was appointed a major-general 
in the American army, more than a month 
before he had reached the age of twenty. 

" Washington was expected shortly in Phil- 
adelphia, and the young general concluded 
to await his arrival before he went to head- 
quarters. The first introduction was at a 
dinner party, where several members of Con- 
gress were present. When they were about 
to separate, Washington took Lafayette aside, 
spoke to him very kindly, complimented him 
upon the noble spirit he had shown, and the 
sacrifices he had made in favor of the Ameri- 
can cause, and then told him that he should 
be pleased if he would make the quarters of 
the commander-in-chief his home, establish 
himself there whenever he thought proper, 
and consider himself at all times as one of 
his family ; adding in a tone of pleasantry, 
that he could not promise him the luxuries 
of a court, or even the conveniences which 



174 ^^^^ Girat Masters of Warfajr 

his former habits might have rendered essen- 
tial to his comfort, but, since he had become 
an American soldier, he would doubtless con- 
trive to accommodate himself to the char- 
acter he had assumed, and submit with a 
good grace to the customs, manners, and pri- 
vations of a republican army. If Lafayette 
was made happy by his success with Con- 
gress, his joy was redoubled by this flattering 
proof of friendship and regard on the part of 
the commander-in-chief. His horses and 
equipage were immediately sent to camp, 
and ever afterward, even when he had the 
command of a division, he kept up his inti- 
.rnacy at headquarters, and enjoyed all the 
advantages of a member of the general's 
family." 

At the battle of the Brandywine, on Sep- 
tember nth of the same year that brought 
Washington and Lafayette together, the 
latter was wounded, and writing home to his 
wife on the first of the following month, 



Washington 175 

spoke thus of his friendship for the great 
American : 

'' Be perfectly at ease about my wound ; 
all the faculty in America are engaged in my 
service. I have a friend who has spoken to 
them in such a manner that I am certain of 
being well attended to ; that friend is Gen- 
eral Washington. This excellent man, whose 
talents and virtues I admired, and whom I 
have learnt to revere as I know him better, 
has now become my intimate friend. His 
affectionate interest in me instantly won my 
heart. I am established in his house, and 
we live together like two attached brothers, 
with mutual confidence and cordiality. This 
friendship renders me as happy as I can pos- 
sibly be in this country. When he sent his 
best surgeon to me, he told him to take 
charge of me as if I were his son, because he 
loved me with the same affection. Having 
heard that I wished to rejoin the army too 
soon, he wrote me a letter full of tenderness, 



1/6 The Great Masters of Warfare 

in which he requested me to attend to the 
perfect restoration of my health." 

At the close of the year 1778, when Lafay- 
ette was about to return to his native land, 
Washington wrote him the letter which fol- 
lows : 

"Philadelphia, 29th December, 1778. 

" My dear Marquis : — This will be ac- 
companied by a letter from Congress, which 
will inform you that a certain expedition, 
after a full consideration of all circumstances, 
has been laid aside. I am sorry, however, 
for the delay it has occasioned you, by re- 
maining so long undecided. 

" I am persuaded, my dear marquis, that 
there is no need of fresh proofs to convince 
you either of my affection for you personally, 
or of the high opinion I entertain of your 
military talents and merits. Yet, as you are 
on the point of returning to your native 
country, I cannot forbear indulging my 



Washington 177 

friendship by adding to the honorable testi- 
monies you have received from Congress, the 
enclosed letter from myself to om* minister 
at your court. I have therein endeavored to 
give him an idea of the value this country 
sets upon you ; and the interest I take in 
your happiness cannot but make me desire 
you may be equally dear to your own. Adieu, 
my dear marquis ; my best wishes will ever 
attend you. May you have a safe and agree- 
able passage, and a happy meeting with your 
lady and friends. I am, etc." 

Washington's letter to Franklin, written 
at the same time as the above, also serves to 
show the warmth of his feeling toward Lafay- 
ette. 

"Philadelphia, 28th December, 1778. 

" Sir : — The Marquis de Lafayette, having 
served with distinction as major-general in 
the army of the United States for two cam- 



178 The Great Masters of Warfare 

paigns, has been determined, by the prospect 
of an European war, to return to his native 
country. It is with pleasure that I embrace 
the opportunity of introducing to your per- 
sonal acquaintance a gentleman, whose merit 
cannot have left him unknown to you from 
reputation. The generous motives which 
first induced him to cross the Atlantic ; the 
tribute which he paid to gallantry at the 
Brandywine ; his success in Jersey, before 
he had recovered from his wound, in an 
affair where he commanded militia against 
British grenadiers ; the brilliant retreat, by 
which he eluded a combined manoeuvre of 
the British forces in the last campaign ; his 
services in the enterprise against Rhode Is- 
land, are such proofs of his zeal, military 
order, and talents, as have endeared him to 
America, and must greatly recommend him 
to his prince. 

** Coming with so many titles to claim your 
esteem, it were needless for any other pur- 



Washington 1 79 

pose than to indulge my own feelings, to add 
that I have a very particular friendship for 
him ; and that whatever services you may 
have it in your power to render him, will con- 
fer an obligation on one who has the honor 
to be, with the greatest esteem, regard, and 
respect, sir, etc." 

In 1784 Lafayette paid a visit to America, 
and on his return after the two friends had 
parted Washington wrote him a letter, in 
which he said, " I often asked myself, as our 
carriages separated, whether that was the 
last sight I ever should have of you ? And, 
though I wished to say no, my fears answered 
yes." 

They never met again. 

" Galileo " and *' Moliere Reading His 
Comedies to His Cook " are two subjects 
which have been treated by Gatti, an Italian 
artist who was born at Forli in 1828. He 
has painted frescoes in the palace of Madame 



i8o TJie Great Masters of Warfare 

Favart in Florence, and in the Teatro Nuovo 
at Pisa, and two of his works, " Justice " and 
" Peace," were in the collection of D. W. 
Powers at Rochester, New York. 



BLUCHER 

" Bliicher, when praised for one of his victories, said, 
' It is owing to my rashness, Gneisenau's prudence, and 
the mercy of the great God.' " 

The rugged Bliicher never failed to do 
justice to Gneisenau's share in all his great 
military exploits. On one occasion he puz- 
zled all present at a banquet by gravely 
announcing his intention of kissing his own 
head ; he solved the riddle by rising and 
embracing that of Gneisenau. When the 
University of Oxford gave the degree of 
doctor of laws to Bliicher, he wittily ac- 
knowledged his debt to his strategist by 
saying, "Well, if I am to be a doctor, they 
must make Gneisenau an apothecary, for he 



Blucher 1 8 1 

makes up the pills and I then administer 
them." 

The Earl of Ellesmere said of Bliicher : 
"The only name connected with the great 
wars of our time, which we can add without 
scruple to those of Bonaparte, Wellington, 
Nelson, and Suwaroff, as likely to be per- 
manently one of the household words of the 
world, is that of a man longo intervallo 
inferior to three of the four — Blucher. If 
we are right in this supposition, it does not 
follow that in respect of military skill and 
genius he can justly be ranked even with sev- 
eral of those Heutenants of Napoleon whom 
we have ventured to condemn to comparative 
oblivion. It is rather on the moral ground 
of his identification with a great national 
movement, of which he was the ostensible 
leader and representative, that he seems to 
us one of the legitimate 'heirs of Fame.' " 

And Rose, one of Napoleon's latest biog- 
raphers, corroborates this view when he says : 



1 82 The Great Masters of Warfare 

"The most inspiring influence was that of 
Bliicher. The staunch patriot seemed to 
embody the best quahties of the old regime 
and of the new era. The rigor learnt in the 
school of Frederick the Great was vivified by 
the fresh young enthusiasm of the dawning 
age of nationality. Not that the old sol- 
dier could appreciate the lofty teachings of 
Fichte the philosopher, and Schleiermacher 
the preacher. But his lack of learning — he 
could never write a despatch without strange 
torturings of his mother-tongue — was more 
than made up by a quenchless love of the 
Fatherland, by a robust common sense, which 
hit straight at the mark where subtle minds 
strayed off into side issues, by a comrade- 
ship that endeared him to every private, and 
by a courage that never quailed. And all 
these gifts, homely but invaluable in a peo- 
ple's war, were wrought to utmost tension 
by an all-absorbing passion, hatred of Napo- 
leon. In the dark days after Jena, when. 



Marshall " ^orwdrts.'' 

From painting by Fritz Neuhaus. 



B Inciter 183 

pressed back to the Baltic, his brave follow- 
ers succumbed to the weight of numbers, he 
began to store up vials of fury against the 
insolent conqueror. Often he beguiled the 
weary hours with lungeing at an imaginary 
foe, calling out — Napoleon. And this almost 
Satanic hatred bore the old man through 
seven years of humiliation ; it gave him at 
seventy-two years of age the energy of youth ; 
far from being sated by triumphs in Saxony 
and Champagne, it nerved him with new 
strength after the shocks to mind and body 
which he sustained at Ligny ; it carried him 
and his army through the miry lanes of Wavre 
on to the sunset radiance of Waterloo." 

At the battle of the Katzbach on August 
26, 181 3, where Macdonald was defeated by 
Bliicher, the veteran, then over seventy years 
of age, well sustained his sobriquet of " Mar- 
shal Forward," when, late in the afternoon, 
he headed a dashing charge of Prussian and 
Russian cavalry agamst the French. 



184 The Great Masters of Warfare 

" The wearied conscripts gave way, fled pell- 
mell down the slopes, and made for the fords 
of the Neisse and the Katzbach, where many 
were engulfed by the swollen waters. Mean- 
while the Russians on the aUied left barely 
kept off Lauriston's onset, and on that side 
the day ended in a drawn fight. Macdonald, 
however, seeing Lauriston's rear threatened 
by the advance of the Prussians over the 
Katzbach, retreated during the night with all 
his forces. On the next few days, the allies, 
pressing on his wearied and demoralized 
troops, completed their discomfiture, so that 
Bliicher, on the ist of September, was able 
thus to sum up the results of the battle and 
the pursuit: two eagles, 103 cannon, 18- 
000 men, and a vast quantity of ammunition 
and stores captured, and Silesia entirely freed 
from the foe." 

A German poet wrote these vigorous lines 
on the Katzbach fight : 



Bliicher 185 

blucher's ball 

" By the Katzbach, by the Katzbach, ha ! there was a 

merry dance ; 
Wild and weird and whirling waltzes skipped ye 

through, ye knaves of France ! 
For there struck the great bass viol an old German 

master famed, — 
Marshal Forward, Prince of Wahlstadt, Gebhard 

Lebrecht Bliicher named. 
Up ! the Bliicher hath the ballroom lighted with the 

cannon's glare ! 
Spread yourselves, ye gay, green carpets, that the 

dancing moistens there ! 
And his fiddle-bow at first he waxed with Goldberg 

and with Jauer ; 
Whew ! he's drawn it now full length, his play a 

stormy northern shower ! 
Ha ! the dance went briskly onward, tingling madness 

seized them all : 
As when howling mighty tempests on the arms of 

windmills fall. 
But the old man wants it cheery, wants a pleasant 

dancing chime ; 
And with gun-stocks clearly, loudly beats the old 

Teutonic time. 
Say, who, standing by the old man, strikes so hard the 

kettle-drum, 



1 86 The Great Masters of Warfare 

And, with crushing strength of arm, down lets the 
thundering hammer come ? 

Gneisenau, the gallant champion : Alemannia's en- 
vious foes 

Smite the mighty pair, her living double-eagle, shiver- 
ing blows." 



Nearly two years later, at Ligny, the in- 
defatigable old hero again led his squadrons 
to the attack. His horse was killed under 
him, and in his fall badly bruised the field mar- 
shal, whose life was saved only through the 
devotion of his faithful adjutant, Nostitz. 
This was on the i6th of June, yet Bliicher's 
order for the next day concluded, '* I shall 
lead you again against the enemy ; we shall 
beat him, for we must," words nobly re- 
deemed on the 1 8th, as the world knows, at 
Waterloo. 

Napoleon told Campbell, at Elba, that 
Bliicher was no general, but that he admired 
the pluck with which the old devil came on 
again after a thrashing. Wellington said that 



Bliicher 187 

while Gneisenau was very deep in strategy, 
Bliicher <' was just the reverse, he knew 
nothing of plans of campaign, but well under- 
stood a field of battle," and added, '' He was 
a very fine fellow, and whenever there was 
any question of fighting, always ready and 
eager, — if anything, too eager." 

The painter of '' Marshall Vorwarts," Fritz 
Neuhaus, was born in 1852, at Elberfeld, and 
is a pupil of the Dusseldorf academy. Among 
the canvases credited to him are " Ash 
Wednesday," " Scene from the Peasants' 
War," "The Prince's First Ride," "An Inci- 
dent in the Youth of the Great Elector," 
" Hagen and the Mermaids," and " Frederick 
William I. Meeting a Company of Emigrants 
from Salzburg." 



1 88 The Great Masters of Warfare 
NELSON 

" Whenever danger has to be faced or duty to be done, 
at cost to self, men will draw inspiration from the name 
and deeds of Nelson." — Mahan. 

" All agree there is but one Nelson." 

— Earl St. Vincent. 

Napoleon received his only wound at the 
siege of Ratisbon, where he sustained a 
sUght injury to one foot. Wellington, like 
his great antagonist, was wounded but once 
— at Orthez, in the hip, not seriously ; but 
Nelson suffered severely. During the siege 
of Calvi, in Corsica, in 1 794, he lost an eye ; 
at Teneriffe, in 1797, his right arm was so 
badly wounded by a musket-ball as to make 
amputation necessary ; and in the following 
year he was struck on the forehead by a 
langridge shot at the battle of the Nile. 

Surely the Portsmouth people saw a strik- 
ing and pathetic spectacle, on that September 
day when the great admiral passed through 



Nelson 1 89 

her streets for the last time, in the short, 
slight figure with the empty sleeve and the 
shining orders on its breast. 

Clark Russell thus tells the story of Nel- 
son's departure on his last voyage : 

"At last came the 2d of September, on 
which day Captain Blackwood, of the Eitrya- 
hiSy arrived at the Admiralty with intelli- 
gence that the combined fleets had put into 
Cadiz. As early as five o'clock in the morn- 
ing, Blackwood presented himself at Merton, 
and found Nelson up and dressed. On see- 
ing Captain Blackwood, Nelson exclaimed, 
* I am sure you bring me news of the French 
and Spanish fleets, and I think I shall yet 
have to beat them.' . . . 

"Nelson received orders to resume the 
command of the Mediterranean fleet, and on 
the night of Friday, September 13th, he left 
Merton forever. He made this entry in his 
private diary: 'At half-past ten drove from 
dear, dear Merton, where I left all which I 



IQO The Great Masters of Warfare 

could hold dear in this world, to go to serve 
my king and country. May the great God 
whom I adore, enable me to fulfil the expec- 
tations of my country ; and if it is his good 
pleasure that I should return, my thanks will 
never cease being offered up to the throne of 
his mercy. If it is his good providence to 
cut short my days upon earth, I bow with 
the greatest submission, relying that he will 
protect those so dear to me that I may leave 
behind. His will be done. Amen, amen, 
amen.' 

" No man can go forth to fight for his 
country without gloomy forebodings, not per- 
haps as to the issue of the struggle, but as to 
whether he shall live to return home. Sir 
Harris Nicholas considers that Nelson's mind 
was strongly impressed with the probability 
that he would never return alive. It is 
stated that before he left London he called 
upon his upholsterer in Brewer Street, where 
the coffin presented to him by Captain Hal- 



Nelson Leaving Portsmouth, i8o^. 

From painting by Fred Roe. 



Nelson 191 

lowell had been sent, and requested that an 
attestation of its identity should be engraved 
on the Hd, for, he said, ' I think it highly 
probable that I may want it on my return.' 
He was greatly moved on leaving Merton. 
About ten at night, a few minutes before 
quitting his home, he went to his child's 
room and said a prayer over her. He then 
bade good-by to Lady Hamilton, entered 
the chaise, and reached Portsmouth next 
day. It is very evident that Nelson was not 
a superstitious man, or he certainly would 
not have chosen a Friday, and the 13th of 
the month, for his departure, when by linger- 
ing another hour and a half he could have 
made it Saturday the 14th. 

" All who have any knowledge of the hfe 
of Nelson will remember that wonderful 
scene of departure on the shore before he 
pushed off in his boat. He had hoped to 
elude the crowd by quitting the George Inn 
through a back way, but they were on the 



192 The Great Masters of Warfare 

beach waiting ; they formed in procession 
after him. Southey tells us that many were 
in tears, and many knelt down before him 
and blessed him as he passed. When his 
barge pushed off the people wept, and 
cheered, and wept again. Nelson answered 
by waving his hat. Some waded into the 
water by the side of his boat. It was an 
extraordinary and pathetic picture. But then 
Southey has truly said, * England has many 
heroes, but never one who so completely 
possessed the love of his fellow countrymen 
as Nelson. All men knew that his heart 
was as humane as it was fearless ; that there 
was not in his nature the slightest alloy of 
selfishness or cupidity ; but that with perfect 
and entire devotion he served his country 
with all his heart, and with all his soul, and 
with all his strength ; and therefore they 
loved him as truly and as fervently as he 
loved England.' 

" He was deeply touched by this demon- 



Nelson 193 

st ration of popular affection, and turning 
to Captain Hardy, exclaimed, * I had their 
huzzas before — I have their hearts now.' " 

At this time he wrote the following letter 
to Mr. Davison : 

'* Day by day, my dear friend, I am expect- 
ing the fleet to put to sea — every day, hour, 
and moment ; and you may rely, that, if it is 
in the power of man to get at them, it shall 
be done ; and I am sure that all my brethren 
look to that day as the finish of our anxious 
cruise. The event no man can say exactly, 
but I must think, or render great injustice to 
those under me, that, let the battle be when 
it may, it will never have been surpassed. 
My shattered frame, if I survive that day, 
will require rest, and that is all I shall ask 
for. If I fall on such a glorious occasion, it 
shall be my pride to take care that my friends 
shall not blench for me. These things are in 
the hands of a wise and just Providence, and 
his will be done. I have got some trifle, 



194 The Great Masters of Warfare 

thank God, to leave to those I hold most 
dear, and I have taken care not to neglect it. 
Do not think I am low-spirited on this ac- 
count, or fancy anything is to happen to me ; 
quite the contrary — my mind is calm, and I 
have only to think of destroying our invet- 
erate foe." 

The English artist, Fred Roe, who painted 
Nelson leaving Portsmouth, is the author of 
several other historic pictures — " Joan 
of Arc," ''Baptism of the First Prince 
of Wales," and " Philip IV. and Velazquez." 
"The Traitor's Wife," and ''Consulting the 
Witch " are also works by this painter. 



NAPOLEON 

" Napoleon was indeed a very great man, but he was 
also a very great actor." — Wellington. 

At the date of Friedland, the fortunes of 
the "Man of Destiny," then three years 



Napoleon 195 

emperor, were rising rapidly to their 
highest. 

The day after the battle he wrote exult- 
ingly to Josephine at St. Cloud : 

"Friedland, June 15, 1807. 
'< My Dear : — I write you only a line, for 
I am very tired by reason of several days 
bivouacking. My children have worthily 
celebrated the anniversary of the battle of 
Marengo. The battle of Friedland will be 
as celebrated for my people and equally 
glorious. . . . The battle is worthy of her 
sisters — Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena." 

As at Jena, Lannes, whom Napoleon 
called the "Roland of the army," played a 
great part at Friedland. Bennigsen, the 
commander of the Russians, "crossed the 
river at Friedland, and sought to strengthen 
his position on the left bank by driving 
Lannes's vanguard back on Domnau, by 



196 The Great Masters of Warfare 

throwing three bridges over the stream and 
by crowning the hills on the right bank with 
a formidable artillery. But he had to deal 
with a tough and daring opponent. Through- 
out the winter Lannes had been a prey to 
ill-health and resentment at his chief's real 
or fancied injustice ; but the heats of sum- 
mer reawakened his thirst for glory, and 
restored him to his wonted vigor. Calling 
up the Saxon horse, Grouchy's dragoons, and 
Oudinot's grenadiers, he held his ground 
through the brief hours of darkness. Before 
dawn he posted his ten thousand troops 
among the woods and on the plateau of 
Posthenen that Res to the west of Fried- 
land, and strove to stop the march of forty 
thousand Russians. After four hours of 
fighting, his men were about to be thrust 
back, when the divisions of Verdier and 
Dupas — the latter from Mortier's corps — 
shared the burden of the fight until the sun 
was at its zenith. When once more the fight 



Napoleon 197 

was doubtful, the dense columns of Ney and 
Victor were to be seen, and by desperate 
efforts the French vanguard held its ground 
until this welcome aid arrived. 

" Napoleon, having received Lannes's ur- 
gent appeals for help, now rode up in hot 
haste, and in response to the cheers of his 
weary troops, repeatedly exclaimed : ' To-day 
is a lucky day, the anniversary of Marengo.' 
Their ardor was excited to the highest 
pitch, Oudinot saluting his chief with the 
words : * Quick, Sire ! my grenadiers can 
hold no longer : but give me reinforcements 
and I'll pitch the Russians into the river.' 
The emperor cautiously gave them pause ; 
the fresh troops marched to the front and 
formed the first line, those who had fought 
for nine hours now forming the supports. 
Ney held the post of honor in the woods 
on the right flank, nearly above Friedland ; 
behind him was the corps of Bernadotte, 
which, since the disabling of that marshal by 



198 TJie Great Masters of Warfare 

a wound, had been led by General Victor; 
there too were the dragoons of Latour- 
Maubourg, and the imposing masses of the 
Guard. In the centre, but bending in toward 
the rear, stood the remnant of Lannes's in- 
domitable corps, now condemned for a time to 
comparative inactivity ; and defensive tactics 
were also enjoined on Mortier and Grouchy 
on the left wing, until Ney and Victor should 
decide the fortunes of the second fight. The 
Russians, as if bent on favoring Napoleon's 
design, continued to deploy in front of Fried- 
land, keeping up the while a desultory fight ; 
and Bennigsen, anxious now about his com- 
munications with Konigsberg, detached six 
thousand men down the right bank of the 
river toward Wehlau. Only forty-six thou- 
sand men were thus left to defend Friedland 
against a force that now numbered eighty 
thousand ; yet no works were thrown up to 
guard the bridges — and this after the arri- 
val of Napoleon with strong reinforcements 



Napoleon 199 

was known by the excitement along the 
enemy's front. 

'' Nevertheless, as late as three p. m., Napo- 
leon was in doubt whether he should not await 
the arrival of Murat. At his instructions, 
Berthier ordered that marshal to leave Soult 
at Konigsberg and hurry back with Davoust 
and the cavalry toward Friedland : * If I 
perceive at the beginning of this fight that 
the enemy is in too great force, I might be 
content with cannonading to-day and awaiting 
your arrival' But a little later the emperor 
decides for instant attack. The omens are 
all favorable. If driven back the Russians 
will fight with their backs to a deep river. 
Besides, their position is cut in twain by a 
mill-stream which flows in a gully, and near 
the town is dammed up so as to form a small 
lake. Below this lies Friedland in a deep 
bend of the river itself. Into this cul-de-sac 
he will drive the Russian left, and fling their 
broken lines into the lake and river. 



200 The Great Masters of Warfare 

"At five o'clock a salvo of twenty guns 
opened the second and greater battle of 
Friedland. To rush on the Muscovite van 
and clear it from the wood of Sortlack was 
for Ney's leading division the work of a 
moment ; but on reaching the open ground 
their ranks were ploughed by the shot of 
the Russian guns ranged on the hills beyond 
the river. Staggered by this fire, the division 
was wavering, when the Russian guards and 
their choicest squadrons of horse charged 
home with deadly effect. But Ney's second 
division, led by the gallant Dupont, hurried 
up to restore the balance, while Latour- 
Maubourg's dragoons fell on the enemy's 
horsemen and drove them pell-mell toward 
Friedland. 

''The Russian artillery fared little better. 
Napoleon directed Senarmont with thirty-six 
guns to take it in flank, and it was soon over- 
powered. Freed now from the Russian grape- 
shot and sabres, Ney held on his course like 



Napoleon 20 1 

a torrent that masters a dam, reached the 
upper part of the lake, and threw the be- 
wildered foe mto its waters or into the town. 
Friedland was now a death-trap : huddled 
together, plied by shell, shot, and bayonet, the 
Russians fought from street to street with 
the energy of despair, but little by little were 
driven back on the bridges. No help was to 
be found there ; for Senarmont, bringing up 
his guns, swept the bridges with a terrific 
fire : when part of the Russian left and centre 
had fled across, they burst into flames, a 
signal that warned their comrades farther 
north of their coming doom. On that side, 
too, a general advance of the French drove 
the enemy back toward the steep banks of 
the river. But on those open plains the 
devotion and prowess of the Muscovite 
cavalry bore ampler fruit : charging the foe 
while in the full swing of victory, these 
gallant riders gave time for the infantry to 
attempt the dangers of a deep ford. Hun- 



202 The Great Masters of Warfare 

dreds were drowned, but others, along with 
most of the guns, stole away in the darkness 
down the left bank of the river. 

" On the morrow Bennigsen's army was 
a mass of fugitives straggling toward the 
Bregel and fighting with one another for a 
chance to cross its long narrow bridge. Even 
on the other side they halted not, but wan- 
dered on toward the Niemen, no longer an 
army, but an armed mob. On its banks they 
were joined by the defenders of Konigsberg, 
who after a stout stand cut their way through 
Soult's lines and made for Tilsit. There, 
behind the broad stream of Niemen, the 
fugitives found rest." 

Born at Lyons in the Waterloo year, Meis- 
sonier became the painter of the military 
glory of Napoleon, and most famous among 
his pictures of the emperor at war is '' Fried- 
land, 1807," of which he said: "I did not 
intend to paint a battle — I wanted to paint 
Napoleon at the zenith of his glory ; I wanted 



Napoleon 203 

to paint the love, the adoration of the soldiers 
for the great captain in whom they had faith, 
and for whom they are ready to die." These 
words Meissonier used in a letter written in 
1876 to A. T. Stewart, who paid the artist 
a very large sum for the picture, which now 
belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art 
in New York. Meissonier died in 1901, after 
a life crowded with successes and honors, 
and his statue stands in the garden of the 
Louvre. 

As the eminent Frenchman pictured Na- 
poleon in the days of his power, so it was 
perhaps natural that a leading English painter 
should portray him in his fall. 

From the conqueror at Friedland to the 
prisoner on the deck of the Bellerophon — 
what a descent ! 

" Well may he look until his frame 
Maddens to marble there ; 
He risked Renown's all-grasping game, 
Dominion or despair, 



204 T^^^^ Great Masters of Warfare 

And lost ; and lo ! in vapor furled, 
The last of that loved France, 

For which his prowess cursed the world, 
Is dwindling from his glance. 

" He lives, perchance, the past again, 
From the fierce hour when first 

On the astounded hearts of men 
His meteor-presence burst, — 

When blood-besotted Anarchy- 
Sank quelled amid the roar 

Of thy far-sweeping musketry, 
Eventful Thermidor ! 

" Again he grasps the victor-crown 

Marengo's carnage yields. 
Or bursts o'er Lodi, beating down 

Bavaria's thousand shields; 
Then, turning from the battle-sod, 

Assumes the Consul's palm, 
Or seizes giant empire's rod 

In solemn Notre Dame. 

*' And darker thoughts oppress him now, — 
Her ill-requited love, 
Whose faith as beauteous as her brow- 
Brought blessings from above. 



Napoleon on "Board the '"Bellerophon.'' 

From painting by W. Q. Orchardson. 



Napoleon 205 

Her trampled heart, his darkening star, 

The cry of outraged man, 
And white-Hpped Rout and Wolfish War, 

Loud thundering on his van. 

"The white dawn crimsoned into morn, 

The morning flashed to day, 
And the sun followed glory-born, 

Rejoicing on his way ; 
And still o'er ocean's kindling flood 

That muser cast his view, 
While round him awed and silent stood 

His fate's devoted few." 

The scene is on the deck of H. M. S. 
Bellei'ophon, which conveyed the emperor to 
England on the 23d of July, 181 5. It is 
a cold, gray morning, with a calm sea, off 
Cape Ushant, the ship rolling slightly. Na- 
poleon, clad in the familiar gray coat (but- 
toned loosely over the green uniform of the 
Guards), stands taking his last look at the 
coast of France. Behind him are the officers 
of his suite — Colonel Planat, General Mon- 
tholon. Surgeon Maingaut, Count Las Cases, 



206 TJie Great Masters of Warfare 

and Generals Savary, Lallemand, and Ber- 
trand. The boy leaning over the poop rail 
is the son of Count Las Cases, who may be 
known by his short stature and civilian's 
dress. Captain Maitland, who commanded 
the Bellerophon, wrote: *' Sunday, the 23d 
of July, we passed very near to Ushant ; 
the day was fine, and Bonaparte remained 
upon deck great part of the morning. He 
cast many a melancholy look at the coast 
of France, but made few observations on 
it." . Maitland's most interesting *' Narra- 
tive " speaks thus of the emperor's arrival 
on board : 

" At the break of day, on the 15th of July, 
18 1 5, VEperviei', French brig of war, was 
discovered under sail, standing out toward 
the ship, with a flag of truce up ; and at the 
same time the Superb, bearing Sir Henry 
Hotham's flag, was seen in the offing. By 
half -past five the ebb tide failed, the wind 
was blowing right in, and the brig, which was 



Napoleon 207 

within a mile of us, made no further prog- 
ress ; while the Superb was advancing with 
the wind and tide in her favor. Thus situ- 
ated, and being most anxious to terminate 
the affair I had brought so near a conclusion, 
previous to the admiral's arrival, I sent off 
Mr. Mott, the first lieutenant, in the barge, 
who returned soon after six o'clock, bringing 
Napoleon with him. 

" On coming on board the BellerophoUy he 
was received without any honors generally 
paid to persons of high rank ; the guard was 
drawn out on the break of the poop, but did 
not present arms. 

** Bonaparte's dress was an olive-colored 
greatcoat over a green uniform, with scarlet 
cape and cuffs, green lapels turned back and 
edged with scarlet, skirts looped back with 
bugle horns embroidered in gold ; plain sugar- 
loaf buttons and gold epaulettes ; being the 
uniform of the Chasseur a Cheval of the 
Imperial Guard. He wore the star, or grand 



2o8 The Great Masters of Warfare 

cross of the Legion of Honor, and the small 
cross of that order ; the Iron Crown, and the 
Union, appended to the buttonhole of his 
left lapel. He had on a small cocked 
hat, with a tricolored cockade ; plain gold- 
hilted sword, military boots, and white waist- 
coat and breeches. 

'' On leaving V Epervier he was cheered by 
her ship's company, as long as the boat was 
within hearing ; and Mr. Mott informed me 
that most of the officers and men had tears 
in their eyes. 

" General Bertrand came first up the ship's 
side and said to me, * The emperor is in the 
boat.' He then ascended, and, when he 
came on the quarter-deck, pulled off his 
hat, and, addressing me in a firm tone of 
voice, said, ' I am come to throw myself on 
the protection of your prince and laws.' " 

Orchardson's picture now belongs to the 
British nation, and since painting it, he has 
treated a closely allied subject — " Napoleon 



Napoleon 209 

at St. Helena Dictating his Memoirs." A 
Scotchman, born in 1835, WiUiam Quiller 
Orchardson has produced many canvases 
bearing transcripts of the men and manners 
of other times. He has painted several 
scenes from Shakespeare ; his *' Queen of the 
Swords " is from Scott's " Pirate," and his 
** Casus Belli " recalls the days of the Puritan 
and the Cavalier; while '* Voltaire" and the 
" Salon of Madame Recamier " remind us 
of Frederick and Napoleon. 



WELLINGTON 

" The Duke of Wellington in the management of an 
army is fully equal to myself, with the advantage of pos- 
sessing more prudence." — Napoleon. 

"Napoleon stands for glory, Wellington 
for duty," is hardly an unfair statement. Earl 
Stanhope relates : *' I breakfasted this morn- 
ing with Hallam, and met Mr. Webster — 
the justly celebrated American, whose ac- 



2IO The Great Masters of Warfare 

quaintance I had already made the day but 
one before, at a dinner at Lord Stanley's- 
He told me that in his way out he had been 
reading two or three odd volumes of the 
* Duke of Wellington's Despatches,' and had 
been greatly struck at their total freedom 
from anything like pomp or ostentation, even 
in moments of the greatest triumph. The 
Waterloo despatch itself contained nothing 
about * victory and glory.' 'So unpretending 
was it,' said Mr. Webster, 'that Mr. Quincy 
Adams — who was our minister at London 
at the time, and who had a good deal of 
bitter feeling against this country, with which 
peace had only just been concluded — de- 
clared on first reading the despatch that it 
came from a defeated general, and that in 
real truth the duke's army must have been 
annihilated at Waterloo. This he seriously 
believed for some time. 

"'What a contrast,' continued Mr. Webster, 
*to Napoleon's rhetorical bulletins ! One day 



Wellington 2 1 1 

one read in them : We have thrown Bliicher 
into the Bober ! And a few days afterward 
one found that Bliicher had somehow got out 
of this Bober and defeated Napoleon himself 
at Leipsic' " 

When in Portugal WeUington wrote, **I 
come here to perform my duty ; and I neither 
do nor can enjoy any satisfaction in anything 
excepting the performance of my duty to my 
own country." 

Tennyson's noble ode on the death of the 
duke says : 

*' Let all good things await 
Him who cares not to be great, 
But as he saves or serves the state. 
Not once or twice in our rough island story, 
The path of duty was the way to glory : 
He that walks it, only thirsting 
For the right, and learns to deaden 
Love of self, — before his journey closes, 
He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting 
Into glossy purples, which outredden 
All voluptuous garden-roses. 



212 The Great Masters of Warfare 

Not once or twice in our fair island story, 

The path of duty was the way to glory : 

He that, ever following her commands, 

On with toil of heart and knees and hands 

Thro' the long gorge to the far light has won 

His path upward, and prevail'd, 

Shall find the toppling crags of Duty scaled 

Are close upon the shining table-lands 

To which our God himself is moon and sun. 

Such was he : his work is done. 

But while the races of mankind endure, 

Let his great example stand 

Colossal, seen of every land, 

And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure ; 

Till in all lands and thro' all human story 

The path of duty be the way to glory." 

And what a worker the man was ! " There 
was enough in his daily work as commander 
of the forces and general administrator to 
unnerve and discourage any but the strongest, 
the most self-reliant and resourceful man. 
^I work like a galley slave,' he wrote his 
brother at Cadiz, 'and yet I effect nothing.' 
He has given us a striking picture of himself, 



The Last Return from Duty. 

From painting by James W. Glass. 



Wellington 213 

drawn by his own pen, in those famous des- 
patches of his, which bear such ample testi- 
mony to his generalship, his prescience, his 
masterfulness, and, above all, his unwearied 
industry and indomitable pluck. It will be 
seen that he did nearly everything himself; 
controlled every department civil and mihtary, 
often created them or improved their ma- 
chinery, dealt direct with their heads and 
with the British representatives at Lisbon 
and Cadiz. In all army matters, the business 
of his own profession, he of course showed 
himself thoroughly at home. He exercised 
the functions of command with the same 
intimate knowledge, the same minute atten- 
tion to details, that have already been noticed 
in his Indian campaigns. 

"This may at once be observed by a pe- 
rusal of his correspondence, and the general 
orders issued from time to time, which were 
presently codified and printed for easy refer- 
ence. Both personnel and materiel become 



214 TJie Great Masters of Warfare 

objects of his minute, painstaking care. 
Officers general and regimental, the rank and 
file, the interior economy of units, the marches, 
baggage, discipline, supplies and so forth, 
he touches upon all in turn, always thoroughly, 
often at great length," 

"Nothing was too intricate, too small for 
his personal attention. It has been said of 
his despatches that they exhibit in a marked 
degree his extraordinary breadth of grasp. 
* You might have fancied the writer of one 
letter to have been bred in a merchant's 
counting-house, of another that he was a 
commissaire de gtierre, or a profound diplo- 
matist, or a financier, or a jurist.' The day 
before the commencement of most important 
field operations, with a mass of most intricate 
miltiary details on his hands, he wrote two 
sheets of foolscap, in his own hand, to Sir 
James M'Grigor, on a disputed question of 
medical administration, explaining at length 
his reasons for differing with his principal 



Wellington 215 

medical officer. Then Wellington invariably 
saw personally to the execution of his own 
designs and plans." 

" Almost to the day of his death the duke 
was a real painstaking operative, a man of 
habit and hard work of the most varied kind. 
No one in England gave away more brides or 
had more godchildren. He rose early from 
his simple couch at Walmer, an old cam- 
paigning friend in Apsley House, a truckle- 
bed, and went straight to his desk, where he 
dealt with his day's correspondence, taking 
every point in turn, and giving each that 
concentrated attention that was one of his 
greatest faculties. * Rest ! Every other ani- 
mal, even a donkey, a costermonger's donkey, 
is allowed some rest, but the Duke of Well- 
ington never. There is no help for it. As 
long as I am able to go on, they will put the 
saddle on my back and make me go.' " 

Of the many pictures which have Welling- 
ton for their subject, one of the best was 



2i6 The Great Masters of Warfare 

painted by an artist in whom Americans 
should feel an interest. James W. Glass, 
whose " Last Return from Duty " shows the 
duke leaving the Horse Guards just before 
his death, was the son of an Englishman who 
was British consul at Cadiz, but his mother 
was a native of Virginia. Glass, born at 
Cadiz about 1825, was at first a topographical 
draughtsman in the United States, but decid- 
ing to follow art, he became a pupil of Daniel 
Huntington, in New York, in 1845, and two 
years later went to London, where he re- 
mained until 1856. During his stay there, 
the Duke of Wellington died, in 1852. 

When Glass first applied to the duke for 
permission to paint his portrait, the proposal 
was rather coolly received, for, like other 
notables, Wellington was tired of sitting to 
artists. " How long do you want me } " he 
inquired. " Half an hour," replied the painter. 
From long experience, the duke doubted this, 
but finally agreed to sit, and in twenty minutes 



Moltke 217 

Glass made a spirited sketch of his head, 
which so pleased Wellington that he con- 
sented to give him another appointment and 
to allow him to make studies of his horse. 
Aided by this, Glass produced the " Last 
Return from Duty," which secured much 
success and was bought by Lord Ellesmere, 
a duplicate being ordered for the queen. 
The artist then returned to America, but died 
in New York in 1857. He left behind him, 
among other works, " The Battle of Naseby," 
"Edgehill," "The Royal Standard," and 
"Puritan and Cavalier." 



MOLTKE 

"His industry and skill had been main elements in the 
creation of that mighty instrument of war, the Prussian 
army." — O'Connor Morris. 

The latter half of the nineteenth century 
witnessed the work of some remarkable old 
men : William L, the German emperor, 



2i8 The Great Masters of Warfare 

who, born in 1797, did not die until 1888; 
his famous field-marshal, Moltke, whose birth 
took place in the first year of the century 
and who lived to be ninety; and Leo XIIL, 
who is still (1902) filling the chair of the 
papacy, at the age of ninety-two. Gladstone, 
too, occurs to one as belonging in the same 
class, but he did not live to be a nonagenarian. 
In Von Werner's picture of " Moltke at 
Sedan," the seventy-year old strategist, as he 
stands watching the progress of the battle, 
seems like a great eagle looking on his prey. 
The French, indeed, called him a vulture. 
"The memorable ist of September had 
come ; a day of woe and despair for France. 
It was still dark when the ist Bavarian corps 
attacked Bazeilles, a suburb, near where the 
Givonne falls into the Meuse. The 12th 
Saxon corps had soon come into line, and 
assailed the hamlets of La Moncelle and 
Daigny, and the thunder of battle rolled 
along the space which extends before the 



Moltke at Sedan. 

From painting by Anton von Werner. 



Mo like 219 

southeast of the fortress. The French made 
a most stubborn defence, the marines of 
Lebrun displaying heroic courage, and the 
chassepot made its superiority felt in what 
was, in a great measure, a combat in streets. 
An unfortunate incident had already oc- 
curred : Macmahon, who had ridden to the 
front of the line, still hoping to find his way 
to Carignan, had been struck by the splinter 
of a shell, and he handed over the chief com- 
mand to Ducrot, a lieutenant, in whom he 
justly placed confidence. Ducrot, we have 
seen, as far back as the 30th of August, had 
judged correctly that a retreat on Mezieres 
was the only chance of safety for the endan- 
gered French, and he instantly gave orders 
that the whole army should fall back to the 
heights of Illy, and endeavor to force its 
way westward. This movement could not 
have conjured away a disaster, but it might 
have saved a large part of the army of 
Chalons ; yet, at the supreme moment, it was 



220 The Great Masters of Warfaj^e 

arrested by interference, unwise and calam- 
itous. 

" Wimpff en believed, like Macmahon, that 
the true course to adopt was to attempt to 
break through the enemy in front, and, by 
Carignan, to advance on Montmedy ; and, 
assuming the chief command after the mar- 
shal's fall, he countermanded Ducrot's orders 
and directed the army to hold its ground. 
At this time the French still maintained their 
positions ; they made repeated and vigorous 
efforts to fall on the Bavarians and Saxons, 
and so to force a passage and escape east- 
ward. But the 4th corps of the Army of the 
Meuse had reached the field about nine a. m. ; 
the Guards, who had had a long way to march, 
through a difficult and thickly wooded tract, 
had speedily joined in a general attack ; the 
crushing fire of the Prussian batteries told 
decisively as the battle developed, and the 
pressure on the French proved impossible to 
withstand, as the line of fire became more 



Mo like 221 

intense, and spread on all sides as far as 
Givonne. By noon the line of the Givonne 
was lost ; the hamlets on it had been stormed 
or abandoned, and the ist and I2th corps 
were driven backward into the valley to the 
south and east of Sedan. They rallied in 
this position on a second line, but their sit- 
uation was already critical in the extreme. 

*' Ere long a tremendous storm had burst 
on the northwestern front of the French 
army. The mass of the Third Army had 
marched through the night, and by the early 
morning the 5th and nth corps, the Wiir- 
tembergers being some distance to the left, 
had reached the Meuse, and were crossing 
the river. Besides the principal bridge of 
Donchery, artificial bridges had been made 
— a striking contrast to Macmahon's negli- 
gence — for celerity was of supreme impor- 
tance, and the Germans were arrayed on the 
northern bank at between seven and eight A. M. 
The march, however, to reach the position of 



222 The Great Masters of Warfare 

the French was long, and retarded by many 
hindrances ; the great bend of the Meuse 
closed part of the way ; the country was 
thickly covered by wood, and it was nearly 
eleven a. m. before the first troops of the i ith 
corps had reached St. Menges and Fleigneux, 
advanced posts of the 7th corps of Douay. 
Batteries were pushed forward to support the 
infantry, but the 5th corps was not yet on 
the scene ; the Wiirtembergers were far dis- 
tant, observing the roads that led to Mezieres, 
and this indicates that had Ducrot's orders, 
given between seven and eight a. m., been 
speedily and thoroughly carried out, the Army 
of Chalons might have, in part, escaped, even 
if assailed in flank by a victorious enemy, 
and probably in the rear by the Army of the 
Meuse. The 7th French corps met the enemy 
boldly, and even attempted counter attacks, 
but St. Menges and Fleigneux were scarcely 
defended, and after a fierce and protracted 
struggle, Floing was captured, and the tri- 



Mo like 223 

umphant Germans passed toward and seized 
the heights of Illy, nearly joining hands with 
the advancing Guards, who had occupied, we 
have seen, Givonne. An iron circle was 
closing round the French, but their disaster 
was ennobled by a fine feat of arms. The 
few good cavalry of the Army of Chalons 
made a magnificent effort to beat back the 
enemy, and, though they failed, some hun- 
dreds of these gallant horsemen contrived to 
effect their escape into Belgium. 

" It was now three in the afternoon, and 
nothing could save the defeated French from 
the coming doom. To the east and south- 
east the troops of the ist and 12th corps 
were gradually forced from their new posi- 
tions, and were driven back on the ramparts 
of Sedan. To the north and northeast, the 
uniting columns of the Prussian Guards and 
of the 5th and nth corps spread over the 
space from which Illy rises ; and the routed 
7th corps was scattered into the valley below. 



224 '^^^^ G^'eat Masters of Warfare 

The south of the French position was closed 
by the Meuse and by the 2d Bavarian corps, 
detached in the morning from the Third 
Army ; and the converging enemies gathered 
in on the ruined host, pent in a narrow en- 
closure, like a flock for the slaughter. The 
5 th French corps shared in the universal 
wreck, and by five in the afternoon a huge 
coil had been drawn around an army still of 
1 10,000 men. Every avenue of escape was 
barred ; the cross-fire of five hundred guns at 
least carried death and despair into shattered 
masses fast dissolving into chaotic multitudes ; 
and the lost battle became a massacre." 

The silent Moltke has several times been 
painted by Von Werner, once as he appeared 
before Paris, once in his study at Versailles, 
and in other pictures. Many of Von Wer- 
ner's works deal with the Franco-Prussian 
war. Among them are : " The Capitulation 
of Sedan," " Meeting of Bismarck and Napo- 
leon at Donchery," '' King William of Prussia 



Farragut 225* 

Proclaimed German Emperor at Versailles, 
January 18, 1871," "The Congress of Ber- 
lin," <'A Prisoner of War," "In the Quarters 
before Paris, 1870," " Luther before the Diet 
of Worms," and "Konigsberg, June 18, 1701." 
Von Werner, a native of Frankfort-on- 
Oder, where he was born in 1843, has re- 
ceived the honors to which his ability as a 
painter of history entitles him, being court 
painter and director of the Royal Academy 
of Berlin. 

FARRAGUT 

"Hull, Bainbridge, Porter, — where are they? 

The waves their answer roll, 
♦ Still bright in memory's sunset ray, — 

God rest each gallant soul ! ' 

" A brighter name must dim their light 
With more than noontide ray. 
The Sea King of the River Fight, 
The Conqueror of the Bay." 

— O. W. Holmes. 

Did any great sailor before Farragut have 
a poet among his officers } The hero of 



226 The Great Masters of Warfare 

Mobile Bay had a true one in Henry Howard 
Brownell, his acting ensign on the Hartford 
at that time, whose ''War Lyrics," published 
at the close of the Civil War, are much less 
known than they deserve to be. Brownell, 
who died not long after the great admiral, 
wrote, in his poem of the " Bay Fight : " 

" From the maintop, bold and brief, 
Came the word of our grand old chief — 

' Go on ! ' 'twas all he said — 
Our helm was put to starboard, 
And the Hartford passed ahead. 

" Ahead lay the Tennessee^ 
On our starboard bow he lay. 
With his mail-clad consorts three 
(The rest had run up the Bay) — 
There he was, belching flame from his bow, 
And the steam from his throat's abyss 
Was a dragon's maddened hiss — 

In sooth a most cursed craft ! — 
In a most sullen ring at bay 
By the Middle Ground they lay, 

Raking us fore and aft. 



Farragut 227 

*' Trust me, our berth was hot, 

Ah, wickedly well they shot ; 
How their death-bolts howled and stung ! 

And the water-batteries played 

With their deadly cannonade 
Till the air around us rung; 
So the battle raged and roared — 
Ah, had you been aboard 

To have seen the fight we made ! 

" How they leaped, the tongues of flame, 
From the cannon's fiery lip ! 
How the broadsides, deck and frame, 
Shook the great ship ! " 

In Loyall Farragut's life of his illustrious 
father, he says : " Let us turn to the scene 
on the flag-ship. On the poop-deck stands 
Captain Drayton. About him are the offi- 
cers of the staff, — Watson, Yates, McKinley, 
and Brownell, — while Knowles, the signal 
quartermaster, identified with the Hartford, 
attends to his duties. We must not forget 
the three old sailors at the wheel — McFar- 
land. Wood, and Jassin. They have been in 



228 The Great Masters of Warfare 

every engagement of the ship, and upon their 
coohiess, in a great measure, depends its 
safety. And there stood the admiral in the 
port main rigging, a few ratHnes up, where he 
could see all about him, and at the same 
time converse with Jouett, who stood on the 
wheel-house of the Metaeomet, which was 
lashed alongside. Freeman, his trusty pilot, 
stood above him in the top. In contrast 
with this, the scene on deck, where the men 
worked their guns with a will, was one of 
animation. As the smoke increased and 
obscured his view, the admiral, step by step, 
ascended the rigging, until he found himself 
partly above the futtock-bands and holding 
on to the futtock-shrouds. The watchful 
eye of Drayton detected his perilous position, 
and, fearing that some slight shock might 
precipitate him into the sea, he ordered 
Knowles to take up a line and make the 
admiral's position more secure. Knowles 
says, in his simple narrative : * I went up 



Farragut. 

From painting by Theodore Kaufmann. 



Farragut 229 

with a piece of lead-line, and made it fast to 
one of the forward shrouds, and then took 
it round the admiral to the after shroud, 
making it fast there. The admiral said, 
" Never mind, I am all right ; " but I went 
ahead and obeyed orders, for I feared he 
would fall overboard if anything should carry 
away or he should be struck.' Here Farra- 
gut remained until the fleet entered the bay. 
"The romantic incident of the admiral's 
being lashed to the mast has led to consider- 
able controversy. (This discussion arose on 
the exhibition of a picture by William Page 
— a full-length portrait of the admiral at the 
battle of Mobile, which represents him as 
lashed in the futtock-shrouds. The picture 
was purchased by a committee in 1871, 
and presented to the Emperor of Russia.) 
The difference of opinion resulted from the 
fact that Farragut did not remain long in 
any one position. While the fleet was enter- 
ing the bay, he was in the/<?;Y main riggings 



230 The Great Masters of Warfare 

where he was secured by the signal quarter- 
master, as before mentioned. But when the 
ram made her attack, he had returned to the 
deck, and when the Hartford was about to 
ram the Tejmessee, he took up his position in 
the port mizzen riggings where, as his flag- 
Heutenant (now Commander) J. C. Watson 
says, * I secured him by a lashing passed 
with my own hands, having first begged him 
not to stand in such an exposed place.' It 
was no uncommon thing for him to show 
activity of this kind, .and the sensible pre- 
caution suggested by his fleet captain, which 
he adopted, was an afterthought." 

Corroboration of these statements, if any 
was needed, is suppHed by Gen. James Grant 
Wilson, who in some "Recollections of Ad- 
miral Farragut," contributed to The Criterion 
(in April, 1902), wrote: " Early in the sum- 
mer of the year following (1866) I accom- 
panied the admiral on the annual race of the 
New York Yacht Club, and in the course of 



Farragut 231 

the day a number of ladies, including Mrs. 
James J. Roosevelt, insisted upon his telling 
the story of his being lashed to the rigging 
of the Hartford, in the battle of Mobile Bay. 
' Oh,' answered Farragut, ' some noise was 
made about that, but it was not as people 
told it. I had gone up aloft — to see better, 
— to get above the smoke of the ship's guns. 
I was as much at home there as on the 
quarter-deck. However, it sometimes hap- 
pens that a mail faints when wounded, and, 
to ensure me against a fall in such a case on 
the deck, an ■ officer took a small piece of 
rope and tied me fast — that's all.' * That's 
all ' is dehghtful in its modesty. . . . 

" The author of this article desires to say 
that he was assured by the admiral himself, 
that he was tied to the rigging of the flag- 
ship Hartford, in the Mobile Bay battle, by 
Quartermaster Knowles, in obedience to 
Fleet Captain Drayton's orders, who was 
apprehensive that, if wounded, Farragut 



232 The Great Masters of Warfare 

would lose his life by falling overboard or 
on the deck. Drayton corroborated this 
distinct statement, that he gave Knowles the 
order. The writer was also assured by the 
artist (Page) that, when painting the picture, 
in his Tenth Street studio, the admiral 
showed him with a small piece of rope how 
he was made fast to the futtock-shrouds by 
the quartermaster. It would seem that the 
foregoing, together with the admiral's ac- 
count of the incident given to the ladies at 
the annual yacht race, should close this 
much discussed question." 

William Page was not the only artist to 
paint Farragut in the rigging of the Hart- 
ford. Both Ehninger and Kaufmann chose 
the episode as a subject for their brush. 
Theodore Kaufmann, a German who was 
born in Hanover in 18 14, and took part in 
the revolution of 1848, came later to the 
United States, and fought in our Civil War. 
In addition to the Farragut canvas, Kauf- 



Grant 233 

mann painted "General Sherman in Camp," 
*' Indians Attacking a Train," ** Slaves Seek- 
ing Shelter under the Flag of the Union," 
and a portrait of Senator Revels. 



GRANT 

" He won his greatest victory by the story of his life, 
told in words so plain, truthful, charitable, and eloquent 
that it will become as classic as the commentaries of 
Caesar, but more glorious, as the record of a patriot who 
saved his country, instead of a conqueror who overthrew 
its liberties." — John Sherman. 

There are, of course, many accounts of- 
fered to those who wish to read of the last 
scene in the great drama of the Civil War. 
One of the best is that written by Gen. 
Horace Porter, who was present at the sur- 
render of Lee, as one of Grant's staff, but 
the description given by the general himself 
in his " Personal Memoirs " must rank high- 
est of all. He says : " I found him (Lee) at 
the house of a Mr. McLean, at Appomattox 



234 The Great Masters of Warfare 

Court House, with Colonel Marshall, one of 
his staff officers, awaiting my arrival. . . . 

"When I had left camp that morning I 
had not expected so soon the result that was 
then taking place, and consequently was in 
rough garb. I was without a sword, as I 
usually was when on horseback on the field, 
and wore a soldier's blouse for a coat, with 
the shoulder-straps of my rank to indicate to 
the army who I was. When I went into the 
house I found General Lee. We greeted 
each other, and after shaking hands took our 
seats. I had my staff with me, a good por- 
tion of whom were in the room during the 
whole of the interview. 

"What General Lee's feelings were I do 
not know. As he was a man of much dig- 
nity, with an impassible face, it was impossi- 
ble to say whether he felt inwardly glad that 
the end had finally come, or felt sad over the 
result, and was too manly to show it. What- 
ever his feelings, they were entirely con- 



The Surrender of Lee. 

From painting by Thure de Thulstrup. 



Grant 235 

cealed from my observation ; but my own 
feelings, which had been quite jubilant on 
the receipt of his letter, were sad and de- 
pressed. I felt like anything rather than 
rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had 
fought so long and valiantly and had suffered 
so much for a cause, though that cause was, 
I believe, one of the worst for which a people 
ever fought, and one for which there was the 
least excuse. I do not question, however, 
the sincerity of the great mass of those who 
were opposed to us. 

" General Lee was dressed in full uniform, 
it was entirely new, and was wearing a sword 
of considerable value, very likely the sword 
which had been presented by the State of 
Virginia ; at all events, it was an entirely 
different sword from the one that would 
ordinarily be worn in the field. In my 
rough travelling suit, the uniform of a private 
with the straps of a lieutenant-general, I 
must have contrasted very strangely with a 



236 TJie Great Masters of Warfare 

man so handsomely dressed, six feet high 
and of faultless form. But this was not a 
matter that I thought of until afterward. 

*♦ We soon fell into a conversation about 
old army times. He remarked that he re- 
membered me very well in the old army ; 
and I told him as a matter of course I re- 
membered him perfectly, but from the differ- 
ence in our rank and years (there being 
about sixteen years* difference in our ages), 
I had thought it very likely that I had not 
attracted his attention sufficiently to be 
remembered by him after such a long inter- 
val. Our conversation grew so pleasant that 
I almost forgot the object of our meeting. 
After the conversation had run on in this 
style for some time, General Lee called my 
attention to the object of our meeting, and 
said that he had asked for this interview for 
the purpose of getting from me the terms 
I proposed to give his army. I said that I 
meant merely that his army should lay down 



Grant 237 

their arms, not to take them up again dming 
the continuance of the war unless duly and 
properly exchanged. He said he had so un- 
derstood my letter. 

"Then we gradually fell off again into 
conversation about matters foreign to the 
subject which had brought us together. 
This continued for some little time, when 
General Lee again interrupted the course 
of the conversation by suggesting that the 
terms I proposed to give his army ought to 
be written out.* I called to General Parker, 
secretary on my staff, for writing materials 
and commenced writing out the terms : 



"'Appomattox C H., Va., 
"'April 9, 1865. 
« ' Gen. R. E. Lee, 

" ' Com'd'g C. S. A. 

" ' General : — In accordance with the substance of 

my letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to receive 

the surrender of the Army of North Virginia on the 

following terms, to wit : Rolls of all the officers and 



238 The Great Masters of Waff are 

men to be made in duplicate. One copy to be given 
to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained 
by such officer or officers as you may designate. The 
officers to give their individual paroles not to take up 
arms against the Government of the United States 
until properly exchanged, and each company or regi- 
mental commander sign a like parole for the men of 
their commands. The arms, artillery, and public 
property to be parked and stacked, and turned over 
to the officer appointed by me to receive them. This 
will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor 
their private horses or baggage. This done, each 
officer and man will be allowed to return to their 
homes, not to be disturbed by United States author- 
ity so long as they observe their paroles and the laws 
in force where they may reside. 

" ' Yours very respectfully, 

" ' U. S. Grant, 
" ' Lieut. -Gen!' 

" When I put my pen to the paper I did not 
know the first word that I should make use 
of in writing the terms, I only knew what 
was in my mind, and I wished to express it 
clearly, so that there would be no mistaking 
it. As I wrote on, the thought occurred to 



Grant 239 

me that the officers had their own private 
horses and effects, which was important to 
them but of no value to us ; also that it 
would be an unnecessary humiliation to call 
upon them to deliver their side-arms. . . . 

*' I then said to him that I thought this 
would be about the last battle of the war — 
I sincerely hoped so ; and I said further, I 
took it that most of the men in the ranks 
were small farmers. The whole country had 
been so raided by the two armies that it was 
doubtful whether they would be able to put 
in a crop to carry themselves and their fam- 
ilies through the next winter without the aid 
of the horses they were then riding. The 
United States did not want them, and I 
would, therefore, instruct the officers I left 
behind to receive the paroles of his troops to 
let every man of the Confederate army who 
claimed to own a horse or mule, to take the 
animal to his home. Lee remarked again 
that this would have a happy effect. 



240 The Great Masters of Warfare 

" He then sat down and wrote out the 
following letter : 

" ' Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia. 

" ' April 9, 1865. 
^'- '■ Ge7ieral : — I received your letter of this date 
containing the terms of the surrender of the Army 
of Northern Virginia as proposed by you. As they 
are substantially the same as those expressed in your 
letter of the 8 th inst., they are accepted. I will pro- 
ceed to designate the proper officers to carry the 
stipulations into effect. 

" ' R. E. Lee, 

" ' General. 
<' ' Lieut. -General U. S. Gra7it!' 

" While duplicates of the two letters were 
being made, the Union generals present were 
severally presented to General Lee. . . . 

" Lee and I then separated as cordially as 
we had met, he returning to his own lines, 
and all went into bivouac for the night at 
Appomattox." 

the end. 



'V I f-^<iJ I \.i\f£. 



